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also  0f  tljc  (T  ttci  it  irf  tie'"St;it'e 

^  o 


Till 


HOOSi,G  TTNFEL, 


In  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts, 


M  AY,    1  8V. .1  853. 


(PUI;T,[>HI-;D  TO  COUI;I-;«T  A  wuoxt;   .\XD  INJURIOUS  m; 

THAT  1IA>  1U-KX  OLYKX  OF  WHAT  WAS  SAID  OX  THK  SniJli- 


TO    WHICH    ARE    ADDED 

i;x'i;  -or  A  si'KKcir.  .AIADI:  PIIER  oc«  CON"- 

TAI.v  •!!•:    ACCOUNT    OF  .THK.  AH-:  ALT  If  ITALISTS 

OF    EOSTOX,    APPLICABLE-  -    COXSIDKRED    IX 

THE   DEBATE    OX   THE    TUXXEL. 


BOSTO'X: 

J,  M.  HEWES  &  CO.,  PRINTERS.  81  CORXIIILL. 
1853. 


* 


v 
I 


SPEECH 


OF 


T.    G.    C  A  RY, 


OX   THE 


ii  0f  tju 


FOR   THE 


HOOSAC  TUNNEL, 

In  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts, 

MAY,    18,    1853. 

(PUBLISHED  TO  CORRECT  A  WRONG  AND  INJURIOUS  IMPRESSION 

THAT  HAS  BEEN  GIVEN  OF  WHAT  WAS  SAID  ON  THE  SUBJECT.) 

TO   WHICH   ARE  ADDED 

EXTRACTS  FROM  A   SPEECH,    MADE   ON    ANOTHER   OCCASION,    CON- 
TAINING SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  WEALTH   AND    CAPITALISTS 
OF  BOSTON,  APPLICABLE  TO   QUESTIONS   CONSIDERED   IN 
THE  DEBATE   ON  THE   TUNNEL. 


BOSTON: 

J.  M.  HEWES  &  CO.,  PRINTERS,  81  CORNHILL. 
1853. 


til 


SPEECH, 


MR.  PRESIDENT, — 

IN  offering  what  I  have  to  say,  I  am  desirous  to  consult  the 
wishes  of  the  friends  of  the  petitioners  as  to  the  time  of  present- 
ing my  views  ;  and  that  they  may  judge  of  this,  I  state  distinctly, 
now,  that  I  am  opposed  to  the  passage  of  the  bill  before  us.  It  is 
not  my  design  to  raise  new  doubts  about  the  means  of  making 
tunnels,  where  a  tunnel  is  wanted ;  nor  to  cast  ridicule  on  the 
machine  that  is  supposed  to  be  successfully  invented  for  this  pur- 
pose. But  I  expect  to  show  that  if  the  tunnel  can  be  completed 
within  five  years,  as  is  said,  and  for  the  sum  proposed, — two  mil- 
lions of  dollars, — it  will  be  found,  then,  that  it  can  lead  to  no  im- 
portant result  either  to  the  City  of  Boston  or  the  State  at  large. 

Still,  I  should  be  very  well  pleased  to  vote  for  the  bill  if  I  could 
do  so  with  propriety  ;  and  I  propose  to  state  my  reasons  for  oppo- 
sition at  this  early  stage  of  the  debate,  that  they  may  be  consid- 
ered in  the  discussion,  and  if  they  can  be  answered,  I  shall  be 
found  to  be  a  willing  convert.  I  particularly  desire  to  be  enlight- 
ened, if  I  am  in  error ;  for  few  things  would  give  me  greater 
pleasure,  Sir,  than  to  accompany  my  friend,  the  Senator  from 
Franklin,  if  we  could  be  convinced  that  we  ought  to  grant  the  aid 
desired,  and  go  with  him  among  the  farmers  and  manufacturers  of 
the  north-western  portion  of  the  State,  to  carry  the  cheering 
news  that  their  wishes  were  to  be  gratified.  For,  Sir,  I  have  old 
associations  with  that  region ;  not  so  much  within  the  border  of  the 
State  as  beyond  it,  in  Vermont,  where  I  should  still  be  recognized 
as  a  member  of  the  bar  of  Windham,  having  resided  there  for  a 
short  period  in  early  life,  but  long  enough  to  be  known  in  legal 
practice  and  to  direct  the  building  of  a  well-known  bridge  over 

M20794S 


what  is  called,  in  language  descriptive  of  the  mountainous  range 
which  we  are  desired  to  penetrate,  one  of  the  "  touchy  streams  " 
that  empty  into  the  Connecticut.  I  know  the  waters  of  the  Hoo- 
sac  and  the  Deerfield,  and  something  of  the  grazing  and  farming 
country  in  which  they  rise  as  well  as  of  the  fertile  plains  to  which 
they  descend.  It  would  afford  me  satisfaction  to  be  instrumental 
in  promoting  prosperity  there  ;  and  I  have  another  motive,  of  sim- 
ilar nature,  to  look  with  all  possible  favor  on  the  plan  proposed. 
I  have  been  a  Director  in  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  Rail- 
road, which  it  is  proposed  shall  make  the  continuation  of  the  new 
line  and  share  largely  in  the  profitable  business  that  it  is  supposed 
we  are  to  develop  ;  having,  through  the  associations  alluded  to, 
been  urged  to  take  that  position  by  some  of  my  old  friends.  I 
look  with  sorrow  on  the  depressed  state  of  the  stock  in  that  road, 
as  the  result  of  all  our  efforts  in  the  direction  ;  although  I  do  not 
perceive,  on  a  review  of  the  whole,  that  we  could  have  done  any 
thing  much  better  than  we  did,  and  I  should  be  really  happy  to 
give  it  a  favorable  impulse  ;  for,  to  use  the  apt  expression  of  the 
counsel  for  the  petitioners,  it  has  suffered,  I  think,  from  "  unkind 
legislation."  I  do  not,  to  be  sure,  believe  that  the  tunnel  would  re- 
move its  greatest  troubles ;  and  those  who  were  with  me  in  the  di- 
rection will  remember  that  I  have  heretofore  earnestly  protested 
against  the  use  of  any  of  its  means  to  aid  this  project,  beyond  the 
sum  of  $1,800,  expended  for  a  general  survey  of  the  country 
near  the  Hoosac  ;  but  in  some  degree  that  road  would,  no  doubt, 
be  benefited  if  the  tunnel  should  be  made.  I  am  ready,  therefore, 
to  yield  the  floor  to  others,  or  proceed  now,  as  may  be  preferred 
by  the  friends  of  the  bill. 

[A  wish  was  here  expressed  that  all  objections  should  be  stated  at  once. 
But  as  the  hour  for  adjournment  was  at  hand,  the  discussion  was  postponed 
to  the  following  day,  the  18th,  when  it  was  renewed,  as  follows.] 

I  have  always  supposed,  Mr.  President,  since  this  project  has 
been  seriously  agitated,  that  if  a  case  could  be  made  out  parallel 
to  that  of  the  necessity  for  the  Western  Railroad,  the  aid  of  the 
State  would  be  given  to  it.  I  have  had  little  doubt  that  if  we 
had  no  other  means  of  direct  communication  with  the  waters  of 
the  Hudson  and  the  great  trade  of  the  West  but  through  the  tun- 
nel proposed,  we  should  at  any  rate  make  the  attempt  to  open  it, 


even  with  all  the  difficulties  before  us  that  its  opponents  foresee. 
I  have,  therefore,  read  attentively  all  that  has  been  sent  to  me,  or 
that  I  have  noticed  in  print,  in  favor  of  the  project,  to  see  how 
nearly  the  two  cases  resemble  each  other. 

Before  the  Western  Railroad  was  opened,  we  had  no  direct 
avenue,  by  land,  for  trade  with  the  West,  except  the  common 
roads.  We  now  have  three.  We  had  no  means  of  bringing  flour 
by  land  from  the  Hudson  but  hi  wagons,  at  the  cost  of  three  dol- 
lars a  barrel  or  more ;  and  by  means  of  that  road  we  reduced  the 
cost  to  about  one  tenth  part  of  that.  The  difference  was  great. 
We  now  propose  to  open  a  new  road  for  the  purpose  of  reducing 
the  cost  from  thirty-one  cents  per  barrel  to  twenty-two  cents, 
(more  likely  to  be  over  twenty-five  cents,)  and  the  difference  is 
not  great.  But  in  order  to  make  even  this  reduction,  such  as  it 
is,  it  is  indispensable  that  the  quantity  to  be  transported  should  be 
greatly  increased,  as  low  rates  of  freight  depend  mainly  on  quan- 
tity. The  first  inquiry  of  importance,  then,  is,  what  quantity  of 
produce  from  the  West  can  we  receive  with  advantage  in  the 
market  of  this  State  ?  There  are  various  articles  besides  flour  ; 
but  as  that  is,  perhaps,  the  most  important,  and  has  been  called 
by  the  friends  of  the  project  "  a  key  to  the  whole  trade,"  we  may 
as  well  use  it  .as  an  illustration. 

BOSTON,  AS  A  MARKET  FOR  FLOUR. 

Before  the  Western  Road  was  opened,  we  received  at  Boston 
large  quantities  of  flour  arriving  coastwise  from  New  Orleans, 
Richmond  and  Baltimore,  for  the  supply  of  the  interior  towns  of 
this  State  and  part  of  New  Hampshire,  and  for  the  supply  of 
Maine,  in  part,  and  of  the  British  Provinces,  as  well  as  for  our 
ships  bound  on  foreign  voyages.  Now,  the  towns  in  the  interior 
are  supplied  almost  entirely  by  the  three  great  lines  of  railroad, 
with  the  cross  roads  between  them,  so  that  they  depend  no 
longer  on  the  market  of  Boston.  The  country  is  supplied  be- 
fore the  city.  The  trade  with  Maine  remains,  for  the  present, 
much  as  it  was,  and  we  cannot  look  for  any  material  increase 
there  ;  because  the  people  of  that  State  are  engaged  largely  in 
shipping,  and  as  their  vessels,  bound  on  freighting  voyages,  dis- 


charge  their  cargoes  at  New  York  in  numerous  cases,  and  then 
return  light  to  Maine  to  refit,  they  can  take  flour  from  there  at 
very  low  freight.  They  thus  carry  from  there  a  considerable 
portion  of  what  is  wanted,  and  will  continue  to  do  so.  The  com- 
munication, too,  which  they  are  opening  from  Maine  with  Canada, 
by  railroad,  will  have  some  effect  in  preventing  any  increase  of 
our  trade  in  that  quarter.  As  large  quantities  of  flour  are  now 
received  in  Boston  by  railroad  from  Canada,  that  flour  is  shipped 
from  here  for  the  supply  of  the  British  Provinces,  because  Cana- 
dian flour  is  admitted  there  free  of  duty  ;  while  ours  is  subject  to 
a  colonial  duty  of  twenty-five  cents  at  Halifax,  forty  cents  in  New 
Brunswick,  and  even  higher  elsewhere.  On  the  whole,  then, 
Boston  is  not  now  so  great  a  market  for  flour  as  it  has  been  ;  and 
in  the  statements  made,  to  show  the  necessity  for  the  tunnel, 
cause  and  effect  have  been  made  to  change  places.  The  business 
in  flour  at  Boston  is  not  falling  off  because  the  means  of  trans- 
portation from  the  West  are  inadequate.  The  business  of  trans- 
portation is  falling  off  because  the  demand  is  diminished  here  for 
Western  flour.  It  deserves  remark,  too,  that  the  diminution  of 
business  in  flour  at  Boston  is  produced  by  causes  which  have  con- 
tributed so  materially  to  the  prosperity  of  the  city,  by  promoting 
that  of  the  State  at  large,  that  if  this  had  been  foreseen  as  a  con- 
sequence, it  would  still  have  been  a  profitable  arrangement  for 
the  city,  to  consent  to  part  with  a  portion  of  that  trade  avowedly 
on  these  terms. 

When  we  hear,  then,  that  the  business  on  the  Western  Rail- 
road is  declining,  and  that  there  is  little  more  of  freight  through 
at  this  time  than  one  half  of  what  there  was  in  1847,  (the  year  of 
famine  in  Ireland,)  a  consideration  rises  that  has  an  important 
bearing  on  the  question  before  us.  If  the  route  which  requires 
this  tunnel  had  been  decided  on,  instead  of  that  selected  for  the 
Western  Railroad,  there  would  probably  have  been  shown,  at  this 
day,  much  such  a  falling  off  in  business  there,  as  now  appears  on 
the  Western  Road.  For  if  it  be  supposed  that  such  a  saving 
could  have  been  made  on  the  proposed  route  as  to  prevent  the 
opening  of  other  roads,  I  shall  probably  convince  the  impartial, 
before  I  sit  down,  that  the  supposition  is  a  mistaken  one.  Those 
other  roads  being  built,  however,  they  will  be  used  to  divide 


the  business,    whether  it   be   with  profit  to  the  stockholders  or 
without. 

These,  then,  are  the  circumstances  under  which  it  is  proposed 
to  make  the  tunnel,  in  order  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  Boston 
and  of  all  Massachusetts.  And  how  is  this  effect  to  be  produced  ? 
Even  at  a  low  rate  of  freight,  how  are  we  to  enlarge  the  market  ? 
The  country  trade  with  the  city  is  greatly  diminished,  and  what  is 
lost  cannot  be  regained.  The  same  may  be  said  of  that  to  the 
British  Provinces.  The  trade  to  Maine  may  be  increased  possi- 
bly a  little,  and  not  much.  We  are  told,  however,  that  a  great 
trade  is  growing  up  with  California  and  Australia,  and  that  large 
quantities  of  flour  will  be  wanted  for  it.  But,  in  truth,  there  is  a 
great  practical  difficulty  on  that  head.  The  Western  flour  gen- 
erally cannot  be  carried,  without  serious  injury,  twice  across  the 
tropics,  in  a  long  voyage  to  California ;  or  once  across,  and 
through  a  long  voyage  afterward,  to  Australia.  There  is  but 
little  flour  that  has  been  found  yet  to  bear  such  navigation,  and 
that  is  brought  here  coastwise  from  Virginia.  A  careful  selec- 
tion, even  from  Southern  brands,  must  be  made.  It  is  not  merely 
a*  question  of  latitude.  In  one  shipment  of  1,100  barrels  of  South- 
ern flour,  but  not  of  the  brands  alluded  to,  1,000  were  found,  on 
arrival  in  California,  to  be  so  much  injured  by  the  voyage  as  not 
to  pay  the  freight.  The  wheat  that  is  suitable  is  said  to  be  raised 
on  a  peculiar  soil,  and  is  called  "stronger"  by  the  bakers.  It 
requires  more  water  in  the  kneading  and  makes  a  lighter  bread. 
Other  wheat,  if  kiln  dried,  may  be  used  with  the  same  security, 
but  is  said  to  lose  weight  very  much  in  the  process.  I  hear  it 
said  near  me  that  there  is  flour  brought  from  certain  parts  of 
Ohio  and  Missouri  that  will  answer  as  well.  Why  is  it  not  used, 
then  ?  The  commercial  witness  of  the  petitioners  stated  to  me,  as 
a  grievance,  that  the  merchants  of  Boston  had  been  compelled 
very  lately  to  pay  a  dollar  and  a  dollar  and  a  half  per  barrel 
above  the  regular  market  price  for  the  choice  Southern  brands 
that  I  speak  of.  Now,  any  of  the  Western  flour  that  should  be 
selected  as  a  substitute  could  be  brought  here  from  Albany  at 
three  days'  notice,  at  thirty-one  cents  a  barrel ;  and  why  was  it 
not  done,  if  that  would  answer,  to  prevent  extortion?  Some 
brands  of  flour  from  the  West  are  far  more  valuable  than  others, 


8 

for  use  by  bakers  here,  but  not  suited  for  exportation  so  far  as  we 
are  yet  informed.  But  however  all  this  may  be,  long  before  we 
can  open  the  tunnel  in  any  way,  California  will  supply  her  own 
wants,  and  Oregon  will  supply  Australia.  We  see  by  the  last 
accounts  that  forty  thousand  acres  of  wheat  are  sown  in  Califor- 
nia this  year ;  and  the  agricultural  land  there  is  so  productive 
that  it  is  estimated  to  yield  forty  bushels  to  the  acre. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  probably  would  be  an  advantage  in  the 
trade  to  Brazil  and  South  American  ports  generally  on  the  Atlan- 
tic side,  so  far  as  that  goes,  to  have  Western  flour  here  at  a  lower 
rate,  as  it  can  be  carried  into  the  tropic  with  safety,  if  sold  there 
at  once  for  use. 

In  regard  to  our  trade  with  England,  the  additional  supplies 
that  are  now  coming  from  Canada,  will,  probably,  be  adequate  to 
any  increase  in  that  direction  ;  for  unless  there  be  injury  to  the 
harvest,  England  does  not  receive  much  from  any  quarter,  and 
her  supplies  of  manufactures  to  Canada  are  to  be  paid  for,  as  far 
as  possible,  in  flour.  The  trade  between  them  through  Massachu- 
setts, as  appears  from  statistics  furnished  by  our  late  Collector 
in  his  letter  to  the  merchants  of  Boston  on  retiring  from  office,  is 
rapidly  increasing,  with  incidental  advantages  to  us ;  but  the 
quantity  of  Canadian  flour  is  increasing  as  fast. 


THE  TUNNEL  COMPARED  WITH  OTHER  PUBLIC  WORKS. 

The  demand  being  thus  limited,  we  can  derive  no  material  ad- 
vantage from  reduction  in  the  mere  cost  of  transportation  from  the 
Hudson,  unless  the  reduction  be  so  great  as  to  cause  a  decided 
change  in  the  course  of  trade.  An  offer  to  transport  cotton  to 
Canada  for  nothing  would  hold  out  no  temptation  to  send  it  there, 
because  it  would  be  in  the  wrong  place ;  and  so  it  would  be  with 
flour  at  Boston  beyond  the  supply  required.  The  class  of  com- 
mercial men  in  Boston  who  are  most  urgent  for  the  tunnel  are 
commission  merchants,  naturally  desirous  to  increase  their  sales 
by  giving  every  facility  to  consignments  of  produce  from  the 
West,  and  to  the  purchase  of  merchandize  here  for  return.  They 
are  a  highly  respectable  and  meritorious  class  of  men  ;  but  it  is 


9 

necessary  to  examine  their  statements  with  something  of  precision 
that  we  may  not  attach  an  undue  importance  to  them  here.  I 
have,  of  late,  taken  some  pains  to  present  my  own  views  openly, 
rather  more  to  the  friends  of  the  measure  than  to  its  opponents, 
because  I  desired  that,  if  my  arguments  could  be  refuted,  it 
should  be  done  before  I  troubled  the  Senate  with  them.  The 
consequence  has  been  that  I  have  received  several  written  com- 
munications on  the  subject,  and  have  had  a  conference  of  some 
hours  with  the  counsel  for  the  petitioners. 

In  one  of  the  letters  sent  me,  a  hope  is  expressed  that  we  shall 
not  place  ourselves  in  the  absurd  position  of  those  who  once  talk- 
ed, in  ridicule,  of  "  De  Witt  Clinton's  Ditch,"  and  lived  to  see  its 
completion  and  its  grand  results.  I  think  we  are  in  no  danger, 
as  we  have  a  very  different  case  before  us.  When  he  and  his  as- 
sociates undertook  the  great  Canal  of  New  York,  it  was,  doubtless, 
regarded  as  an  agreeable  incident,  though  not  a  leading  motive, 
that  it  might  benefit  the  commission  merchants  in  the  city  ;  but 
not  by  the  petty  rivalry  now  proposed,  in  which  one  party  is  to 
gain  advantages  to  the  detriment  of  another.  A  leading  consid- 
eration was,  the  prosperity  of  the  city  of  New  York  by  an  impulse 
from  trade  newly  created,  by  a  clear  addition  to  the  commerce  of 
the  State  and  of  the  world.  This  depended  on  another,  which 
was  the  opening  of  the  vast  and  fertile  region  of  Western  New 
York,  that  immense  products  of  her  own  soil  might  reach  the  sea. 
Beyond  this,  too,  were  the  aspirations  of  a  noble,  a  patriotic  am- 
bition, to  open  an  avenue  to  the  sea  for  the  commerce  of  the  great 
lakes. 

How  is  it  with  us  ?  Is  it  to  bring  into  use  some  valuable  pro- 
duct of  our  own  soil,  which  could  not  reach  the  sea  by  any  other 
means,  that  we  are  to  make  the  tunnel  ?  Not  at  all.  It  is  the 
product  of  other  States,  chiefly,  that  is  to  pass  through  us  as  a 
sieve.  If  it  were  for  great  products  of  our  own,  we  might  all 
think  alike  on  the  subject.  Is  there  the  same  grand  object  in 
view  with  us  to  rouse  a  lofty  patriotism  to  exertion,  for  the  benefit 
of  sister  States  ?  Not  so.  With  their  produce  once  on  the  Hud- 
son, they  need  no  aid  from  us  to  get  it  forward.  It  is  the  privi- 
lege of  selling  it  for  them  that  we  have  in  view,  the  permission  to 
fetch  and  carry  for  others  and  to  take  their  orders. 
2 


10 


SAVING  IN  DISTANCE. 

Do  I  overcharge  the  statement  ?  or,  do  I  underrate  the  advan- 
tages that  are  offered  us  ?  Let  us  see. 

Here  is  a  pamphlet  of  78  pages,  containing  a  report  of  the 
hearing  on  this  subject  before  the  joint  Committee  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. I  have  been  awake  over  it  after  midnight  more  than  once 
since  it  was  laid  here  for  our  examination  ;  and  its  developments 
are  conclusive  with  me  against  the  project,  unless  it  can  be  shown 
that  I  misapprehend  them  ;  of  which,  as  I  have  said,  I  am  very 
willing  to  be  convinced. 

A  comparison  between  the  two  roads,  the  Western  as  it  is,  and 
the  new  one  through  the  tunnel,  as  it  is  intended  to  be,  is,  of 
course,  to  be  looked  for  there.  The  actual  distance  over  the 
Western  Road,  from  Greenbush,  on  the  Hudson,  opposite  Albany, 
to  Boston,  is  200  miles.  The  distance  from  Troy  to  Boston,  over 
the  new  road  proposed,  will  be  186  miles.  The  actual  difference 
of  distance,  therefore,  is  fourteen  miles.  But  in  the  report  it  is 
called  twenty-two  miles,  because  the  distance  by  the  Western 
Road  is  cast,  not  from  Greenbush  or  Albany,  but  from  Troy, 
which  is  higher  up  the  river.  Why  this  is  done,  I  do  not  under- 
stand, for  the  Western  Road  can  have  flour  or  other  produce 
from  Albany  to  bring  on,  and  at  as  low  a  price,  without  using  the 
additional  distance  to  Troy.  But  it  is  so  set  down,  and  being  de- 
sirous to  avoid  altercation  on  small  points,  I  so  take  it,  with  the 
single  remark,  however,  that  if  the  Western  Road  is  supposed  to 
run  from  Troy,  and  not  to  begin  at  Greenbush,  opposite  Albany, 
all  questions  of  difficulty  about  a  ferry  between  Albany  and  Green- 
bush  are  waived.  Whatever  advantage  the  new  road  will  have 
in  starting  from  Troy  instead  of  Albany,  and  that  is  supposed  to 
be  something  important,  the  Western  Road  will  have  the  same. 
The  latter  is  subjected,  at  present,  to  two  miles  of  carriage  by 
horse  power  for  any  merchandize  in  Troy ;  but  a  short  tunnel, 
which  is  now  in  progress  under  another  Company,  will  soon  ob- 
viate that. 


11 

Let  us  call  the  difference  of  distance,  then,  as  it  is 

stated,  to  be  .  .  ,  ..:<  .  :<1.  ....  22  miles. 

The  grades  of  the  Western  Railroad  are  higher  and  the 
curves  shorter  than  those  on  the  new  route  are  to 
be,  and  these  disadvantages,  being  reduced  to  miles 
according  to  certain  tables  that  are  given,  are  taken 
as  equivalent  to  a  further  addition  in  length  of  .  43  miles. 

Thus  making  an  excess  on  the  Western  Road  of         .      65  miles, 
over  the  route  of  the  Troy  and  Greenfield  Road, 
which  is  to  be     .         .         .         .         .         .         .  186  miles. 

The  measure  of  the  working  power  required  on  the 

Western  road,  then,  is         .      f'Y         .         .         .    251  miles, 
instead  ef  the  200  miles  of  positive  distance. 

SAVING  IN  COST  OF  TRANSPORTATION. 

If  we  were  to  concede  this  addition  of  25  per  cent,  to  the  actual 
length  of  the  Western  Road,  in  order  to  cover  the  disadvantages 
which  it  is  supposed  to  labor  under,  then  I  understand  that  each 
one  of  those  251  constructive  miles  may  be  passed  as  easily  and 
as  cheaply  as  each  mile  of  the  186  on  the  new  route.  The  pe- 
titioners suppose  that  the  actual  cost  of  transporting  a  ton  of 
goods  or  a  passenger  one  mile  will  be  only  half  a  cent.  There  is 
reason  to  think  that  this  is  much  too  low.  But  supposing  that 
they  are  correct,  then  the  cost  of  a  ton  or  passenger  over  the  new 
route  of  186  miles  will  be  93  cents,  and  over  the  Western  Road, 
now  called  251  miles,  will  be  125J  cents.  As  there  are  not 
quite  ten  barrels  of  flour  to  a  ton,  the  cost  on  the  new  route  will 
be  about  10  cents  ar  barrel,  (the  counsel  say  10  to  11  cents,)  and 
over  the  Western  Road  13 J  cents.  The  saving  in  cost  of  trans- 
portation by  opening  the  tunnel,  then,  even  if  we  take  the  figures 
of  the  counsel  for  the  petitioners  and  their  engineer,  will  be  only 
three  cents  and  a  fraction  in  bringing  a  barrel  of  flour  from  the 
Hudson  to  Boston !  Sir,  I  made  this  statement  recently  to  a 
warm  advocate  of  the  bill  before  us,  and  he  remarked,  what  I 
think  every  body  else  must  admit,  on  such  a  statement,  that  "  this 
is  no  saving  worth  making  a  tunnel  for  1"  But  he  went  at  once, 


12 

as  I  supposed  he  would,  to  repeat  my  statement  and  ascertain 
how  far  it  could  be  refuted.  He  soon  came  to  me,  with  the  emi- 
nent counsel  for  the  petitioners,  to  convince  me  that  it  was  erro- 
neous. I  said,  "  If  sixty-five  miles  are  not  a  sufficient  addition  to 
cover  the  disadvantages  of  the  Western  Road,  how  many  more 
miles  will  you  have  ?"  I  was  told  that  the  difference  could  not  be 
reduced  to  miles ;  and  a  scheme  was  laid  open  of  local  or  way 
business  to  be  monopolized  by  the  new  road,  to  the  utter  defeat 
of  any  rivalry  from  the  roads  already  made,  of  which  I  can  only 
say  that  of  all  the  plans  that  I  have  known  to  fail,  in  the  varied 
experience  of  my  life,  I  have  rarely  heard  of  any  that  looked 
more  like  dreamy  speculation  than  that.  I  do  not  dwell  on  its 
details,  because  others  can  do  so  if  they  see  any  advantage  to  be 
gained  by  presenting  them  here.  Since  the  interview  that  I 
speak  of,  however,  the  engineer  of  the  petitioners  has  published 
his  statement,  with  the  table,  in  one  of  the  newspapers,  and  it 
confirms  my  calculation,  excepting  that  he  asserts  that  the  sixty- 
five  miles  are  gained  between  the  Hudson  River  and  the  Connec- 
ticut only.  So  be  it.  I  shall  show  that  this  advantage,  which  is 
equivalent  to  only  3J  cents  on  a  barrel  of  flour,  is  all  that  can  be 
gained,  because  it  will  always  be  as  easy  and  as  cheap  to  bring 
merchandise  or  passengers  from  Springfield  to  Boston  as  from 
Greenfield  to  Boston.  There  is  one  grade  on  this  side  of  Spring- 
field fifteen  feet  higher  than  any  on  the  other  route,  and  it  may 
require  the  use  occasionally  of  an  extra  engine  ;  but  the  distance 
is  less  from  Springfield  to  Boston  than  from  Greenfield  over  the 
Vermont  and  Massachusetts  and  the  Fitchburg  Roads. 

I  repeat,  then,  that  the  whole  saving  by  the  tunnel  route  can- 
not, by  the  showing  of  the  petitioners,  exceed  three  cents  and  a 
fraction  on  a  barrel  of  flour.  The  only  error  that  I  can  discover, 
is,  that  the  addition  of  sixty-five  miles  makes  too  large  an  allow- 
ance. But  if  that  be  admitted  for  argument,  according  to  the 
best  information  that  I  can  obtain,  ah1  the  difficulties  on  the  West- 
ern Road  are  fairly  met  and  largely  provided  for.  If  I  am  in 
error,  and  it  can  be  shown  that  the  difference  in  cost  on  the  two 
routes  will  be  even  twice  or  three  times  what  I  say,  let  it  be 
shown  accordingly. 


•    f     1* 

Whatever  the  saving  on  the  new  route  may  be,  however,  we 
come  to  the  inquiry,  what  will  be  the  effect,  for  changing  the 
course  of  trade,  of  the  lowest  rate  of  freight  which  the  petitioners 
expect  to  establish  ? 

In  the  pamphlet  of  78  pages,  that  I  speak  of,  containing  a  re- 
port of  the  hearing  before  the  Committee  of  the  Legislature,  half  a 
page  only,  on  the  last  leaf,  is  given  to  testimony  on  the  commercial 
bearing  of  the  measure  proposed.  It  is  from  one  witness  only, 
a  commission  merchant,  dealing  chiefly  in  produce  from  the  West, 
but  without  personal  experience  in  freight  commerce.  He  says, — 
"  The  cost  of  transporting  flour  to  New  York  is  about  twenty 
cents  less  than  to  Boston.  New  York  has  great  advantage  over 
Boston  on  this  account.  If  we  could  get  flour  within  ten  cents 
per  barrel  as  cheap  in  Boston  as  hi  New  York,  it  would  greatly 
benefit  the  city ;  it  would  increase  exports  to  Europe,  Nova  Sco- 
tia and  New  Brunswick.  There  have  been  a  large  number  of 
vessels  sent  from  this  port  to  California  and  Australia,  laden  in 
part  with  flour.  The  shipments  of  flour  to  Liverpool  are  mainly 
from  New  York." 

Now  supposing  him  to  be  correct  in  the  belief,  that  "  it  would 
greatly  benefit  the  city"  to  have  flour  only  ten  cents  higher  in 
Boston  than  it  is  in  New  York,  how  near  are  we  likely  to  come  to 
that,  on  the  plan  proposed  by  the  petitioners  ?  A  few  words  will 
be  sufficient  to  show  that,  on  their  most  favorable  supposition,  we 
shall  still  be  fifteen  cents  above  New  York. 

I  find  in  the  Railway  Times  a  letter  from  one  of  the  petitioners, 
Peter  Clark,  Esq.,  who  is,  I  believe,  a  person  of  great  experience 
in  railroads,  in  which  he  says  that  merchandise  can  be  brought 
from  Troy  to  Boston  by  the  new  route  at  two  dollars  per  ton,  and 
leave  a  fair  profit.  The  President  of  the  Vermont  and  Massachu- 
setts Railroad  being  warmly  interested  in  the  project,  and  hearing 
that  Mr.  Clark  has  expressed  such  an  opinion,  addresses  him  a 
note  inquiring  whether  that  opinion  is  correctly  reported ;  and 
Mr.  C.  answers  that  it  is  so,  and  that  he  is  confident  that  it  can  be 
done,  if  there  should  be  200,000  tons  of  merchandise  annually, 
(which  is  twice  what  has  ever  come  over  the  Western  Road,  even 
in  the  year  of  famine  in  Ireland,)  and  100,000  passengers,  (about 
three  times  the  number  that  ever  came  over  the  Western  Road). 


14 

If  Mr.  Clark  is  right,  the  charge  for  transporting  a  barrel  of  flour 
from  the  Hudson  to  Boston,  then,  would  be  about  twenty-two 
cents. 


COST  DOWN   THE   HUDSON. 

Now,  since  this  bill  has  been  under  discussion  in  this  house,  I 
have  seen,  here  in  Boston,  the  owner  of  a  large  quantity  of  flour 
sent  from  Cleaveland  in  Ohio  to  Albany,  who  came  here  to  ascer- 
tain whether  he  had  better  let  the  flour  come  on  to  Boston  for 
sale,  or  send  it  to  New  York.  He  stated  that  the  freight  was  to 
be  fifty-five  cents  per  barrel,  if  he  received  it  at  Albany,  or  sixty 
cents  if  he  should  choose  to  have  it  delivered  in  New  York, — the 
place  of  its  delivery  being  at  his  option.  Here,  then,  is  an  actual 
transaction  to  show  the  freight  down  the  Hudson  River  to  be  only 
five  cents.  It  is  also  a  matter  of  common  information  that  the 
freight  from  Albany  to  New  York  is  rarely  more  than  "  a  York 
sixpence"  (6|  cents)  per  barrel,  and  it  is  sometimes  much  less. 
If  the  petitioners  could  work  cheap,  then,  by  obtaining  the  enor- 
mous quantity  of  freight  and  the  number  of  passengers  which  they 
dream  of,  and  thus  bring  the  merchandise  at  two  dollars  a  ton, 
they  could  not  attain  the  object  proposed  in  this  testimony.  With 
a  charge  of  about  twenty-two  cents  from  Troy  to  Boston  and  only 
about  one  third  of  that  from  Troy  to  New  York,  we  should,  still, 
be  fifteen  cents  or  more  above  New  York.  If  the  flour  were 
brought  here  at  one  dollar  per  ton,  which  is  to  be  the  mere  cost 
on  the  road,  (and,  as  I  think,  much  less  than  the  cost,)  without 
any  profit  to  pay  dividends  or  interest,  we  should  still  be,  usually, 
five  or  six  cents  above  New  York.  And  if  the  Directors  of  the 
four  roads  which  make  up  the  line  from  Troy  to  Boston  should  be 
so  obliging  as  to  do  it  for  nothing  at  all,  bringing  flour  over  the 
road  in  New  York,  from  Troy  to  our  State  line,  over  the  road 
through  the  tunnel  to  Greenfield,  and  over  the  Vermont  and  Mas- 
sachusetts and  the  Fitchburg  Roads,  with  no  charge  whatever  to 
cover  expenses,  then,  we  should  be  only  five  or  six  cents  below 
New  York.  Even  that  would  be  found  to  ofier  no  great  induce- 
ment for  vessels  to  come  on  this  side  of  Cape  Cod  for  the  flour. 
A  few  might  come,  and  not  many  ;  for  we  are  on  the  wrong  side 


15 

of  the  Cape, — a  stubborn  geographical  fact  of  potent  bearing  in 
these  matters. 

But  the  Directors  of  these  roads  are  not  going  to  bring  flour 
here  for  nothing.  It  will  not  be  brought  merely  for  actual 
cost  over  the  new  road  which  it  is  now  proposed  to  make  from 
Greenfield  to  the  State  line  of  New  York,  whatever  others  may 
do  for  rivalry ;  for  that  road  must  have  income  to  pay  interest  on 
the  loan  that  is  to  be  made  for  the  tunnel.  It  may  seem  to  some 
persons  absurd  to  dwell  a  moment  on  the  supposition  that  any 
one  could  think  of  such  a  thing  as  transporting  merchandise  from 
Troy  to  Boston  for  little  or  nothing.  But  they  have  not  yet 
heard  the  plan  that  I  have  alluded  to  for  drawing  such  surprising 
profits  from  the  local  business  on  the  new  line  that  it  will  enable 
the  Directors  to  pay  their  interest  and  even  offer  a  drawback  of 
part  of  the  freight  to  the  purchaser  of  Western  flour  in  Boston, 
provided  he  will  ship  it !  This  is  not  set  forth  before  the  Senate 
as  part  of  the  scheme  of  the  petitioners,  but  one  may  hear  it  else- 
where from  those  who  are  in  favor  of  the  grant.  It  is  necessary, 
therefore,  to  take  into  view  some  characteristics  in  which  the 
trade  of  Boston  differs  from  that  of  New  York,  and  which  are  not 
to  be  controlled  by  a  trifling  difference  in  the  cost  of  flour. 

BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK  COMPARED. 

New  York,  from  her  position,  has  become  commercially  a  great 
central  point  for  the  Union,  and  for  a  large  portion  of  our  foreign 
trade.  Boston  is  geographically  only  a  central  point  in  commerce 
for  the  larger  part  of  New  England.'  New  York  is,  of  course,  a 
great  place  for  agencies.  Besides  the  business  which  may  be 
called  her  own,  and  which  would  make  her  a  large  city  at  any 
rate,  she  is  employed  in  transacting  the  business  of  other  people  ; 
and  this  makes  her  the  most  populous  city  of  the  Union.  The 
business  of  Boston  is  necessarily  original  in  its  character,  growing 
out  of  the  industry  and  enterprise  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
and  of  those  who  move  in  from  neighboring  States.  She  is  a 
principal ;  employing,  to  no  small  extent,  the  agency  that  I  speak 
of  in  New  York,  and  giving  directions  what  shall  or  shall  not  be 
done  there. 


10 

A  voyage  is  planned  quietly  in  Boston.  The  ship  is  fitted  for 
sea  without  noise  or  bustle,  and  sails,  perhaps,  for  the  other  side 
of  the  globe.  At  the  end  of  ten  or  twelve  months  she  returns 
to  New  York  ;  richly  laden,  very  likely  with  teas  and  silks  ;  and 
then  the  bustle  begins.  The  cargo  is  to  be  held  or  sold,  as  orders 
may  be  given  from  Boston.  The  proceeds  are  to  be  disposed  of 
in  conformity  to  orders  from  here.  The  profits  belong  here  and 
are  remitted  here,  and  the  ship  comes  round  here  to  be  dismantled 
and  quietly  refitted  for  another  voyage.  The  basis  of  the  whole 
proceeding  is  very  likely  to  be  intelligence  wiiich  the  merchant 
of  Boston  has  acquired  by  personal  experience  in  the  distant  re- 
gion to  which  the  vessel  is  destined. 

I  speak  from  personal  knowledge  in  this,  having  resided  for  ten 
years  in  New  York,  representing  there  some  of  the  most  enter- 
prising and  successful  merchants  of  Boston,  until  I  was  as  famil- 
iarly known  among  directors  of  banks  and  insurance  offices  as  I 
am  here  ;  and  it  was  within  my  own  observation  that  Boston  capi- 
tal was,  as  it  still  is,  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the  stir  that  is  seen 
there.  When  I  have  gone  into  Wall  street  and  inquired  what 
was  going  on,  the  question  has  been  put  to  me,  in  reply,  "  Who 
should  know  if  you  do  not  ?  You  seem  to  be  directing  an  impor- 
tant part  of  what  is  going  on." 

I  beg  to  be  understood  as  speaking  with  entire  respect  of  New 
York.  She  has,  as  I  have  intimated,  business  of  her  own  grow- 
ing out  of  the  sagacity  and  enterprise  of  her  merchants  sufficient 
to  make  her  great ;  but  the  peculiar  activity  and  a  great  portion 
of  the  increase  in  population  visible  there,  arises  in  the  way  that  I 
have  described.  It  seems  to  me  idle  to  compare  Boston  with 
New  York  by  increase  of  numbers,  while  they  differ  so  widely  in 
the  particulars  mentioned.  Boston  has  long  been  growing  rapidly, 
and  continues  to  do  so  ;  fast  enough,  I  should  think,  to  satisfy  her 
reasonable  wishes.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  desirable  that  her 
population  should  be  swelled  to  a  vast  multitude,  not  easily  con- 
trolled by  wholesome  regulations,  perhaps,  under  institutions  like 
ours,  if  the  increase  is  to  come  from  mere  agencies  like  a  consid- 
erable proportion  of  that  in  New  York.  Boston  had  but  18,000 
inhabitants  in  my  childhood.  I  have  seen  her  population  doubled 
three  times  over,  and  it  is  now  going  on  to  be  doubled  a  fourth 


17 

time.  She  has  become  large  enough  to  possess  the  characteristics 
of  a  great  city,  and  since  that  is  so,  I  see  no  reason  for  concern. 
It  certainly  was  desirable  that  she  should  become  so  large  that  no 
one  need  be  troubled  with  the  impression  that  each  person  knew 
every  body's  business.  But,  now,  she  has  attained  that  degree 
of  magnitude.  No  great  performer  of  any  description,  no  eminent 
lecturer,  no  traveller  worthy  of  distinction  would  come  to  the 
United  States  without  including  Boston  in  his  range  of  visits  to 
the  great  cities  of  the  Union.  If  a  person  desires  to  fill  a  large 
space  in  the  public  eye,  by  living  for  show,  he  may  be  gratified 
here.  If  he  wishes  for  privacy,  he  may  live  as  retired  as  if  he 
were  in  any  other  city  of  the  United  States,  or  in  the  woods  of  Berk- 
shire.* Why,  then,  should  we  be  concerned  at  the  growth  of 
other  places,  if  we  are  prosperous  ?  It  is  said  that  only  three 
hundred  houses  were  built  in  Boston  the  last  year.  I  do  not 
know  the  truth  of  this,  but  what  then  ?  If  we  could  have  a  return 
of  all  the  houses  that  were  built  in  the  environs  the  last  year,  for 
people  who  transact  their  business  in  Boston,  and  of  new  ware- 
houses in  the  city,  we  should  find  a  very  different  account.  The 
truth  is  that  the  stores  are  encroaching  annually  on  the  dwelling- 
houses,  and  people  are  in  a  manner  driven  for  residence  into  the 
country,  where  the  railroads  furnish  great  facilities  of  access. 
Street  after  street  is  given  up  to  business  for  warehouses,  till  at 
last  the  encroachment  has  come  within  view  from  this  house.  The 
Masonic  Temple  is  taken  for  business,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Temple  Place,  opposite  here,  may  consider  that  they  have  re- 
ceived notice  to  remove.  But  if  proof  be  wanted  of  our  prosper- 
ity, let  any  one  look  at  our  wharves,  and  (beside  the  old  places 
for  ship  building,)  at  the  ship  yards  on  East  Boston  and  Chelsea, 
where  a  fleet  of  clipper  ships,  the  admiration  of  the  commercial 
world,  has  been  launched,  within  three  years,  from  places  that 
were  milk  farms  but  recently,  to  be  sent  on  such  voyages  as  I 
have  described. 

*  This  passage  has  been  represented  as  if  a  wish  had  been  here  expressed 
that  Boston  might  always  be  confined  to  the  diminutive  state,  convenient 
for  gossip,  from  which  it  is  here  asserted  that  she  has  already  emerged. 
3 


18 


PROSPERITY  OF  THE  STATE. 

And  from  this  view  of  the  city,  which  exhibits  such  prosperity 
and  growth,  let  us  look  abroad  through  the  State,  and  regard  her 
in  her  two-fold  position  with  respect  to  the  rest  of  the  Union,  in 
territory  and  in  political  power.  We  hear  a  great  outcry  that 
she  is  losing  ground,  and  particularly  in  comparison  with  New 
York,  so  that  something  must  be  done  to  sustain  her.  Beginning 
with  square  miles,  at  one  end  of  the  list  of  the  States,  which  vary 
in  extent  from  about  1,000  square  miles  to  more  than  100,000, 
we  find  Rhode  Island,  Delaware,  Connecticut,  New  Jersey  and 
Massachusetts  to  be  the  five  smallest  in  successive  order.  Be- 
ginning at  the  other  end,  with  the  division  of  power  as  the 
States  are  represented  in  Congress,  we  find  the  five  greatest  to 
be  New  York,  the  "  Empire  State,"  coming  first,  Pennsylvania, 
the  "  Keystone  State,"  next,  then  Ohio,  the  greatest  free  State 
of  the  West,  and  Virginia,  the  "mother  of  States  and  Presi- 
dents ;"  while  Massachusetts  stands  with  them,  the  fifth  in  order. 
With  scarcely  8,000  square  miles  of  territory,  she  is  found  still  by 
the  side  of  Virginia,  eight  times  as  large,  in  this  season  of  pros- 
perity and  power,  as  they  stood  together  in  the  time  of  revolution 
and  danger.  In  the  new  apportionment  of  representatives  under 
the  last  census,  only  two  of  the  old  States  do  more  than  to  hold 
their  own  position.  Pennsylvania,  with  all  her  great  internal  im- 
provements by  canal  and  railroad,  is  one,  and  Massachusetts  the 
other.  Each  of  them  gains  a  representative.  New  York  loses  a 
representative  by  the  result  of  growth  for  the  ten  years,  and  Mas- 
sachusetts gains  one  !  Now,  Sir,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  an  insult  to 
common  sense*  to  say,  in  such  a  state  of  things  as  this,  that  we 
ought  to  make  a  great  struggle,  in  a  measure  of  questionable 
character,  to  prevent  Massachusetts  from  falling  behind  in  propor- 
tion to  the  State  of  New  York. 


*  This  expression  has  been  repeated  without  the  least  reference  to  the 
connection  in  which  it  was  used,  with  the  result  of  the  late  census,  and  rep- 
resented as  if  the  assertion  had  been,  that  it  would  be  an  insult  to  common 
sense  to  say  that  either  the  city  or  the  State  would  be  benefited  by  any 
thing  that  might  be  done  to  promote  their  prosperity. 


19 

If  any  one  is  surprised  at  this  result,  and  desires  to  know  how 
it  should  be  that  Massachusetts  continues  to  grow  in  numbers 
while  she  is  constantly  sending  out  emigrants  to  the  South  and 
West,  and  to  all  parts  of  the  commercial  world  that  are  reached 
by  American  ships,  he  may  find  an  explanation  by  looking  again 
at  the  census.  There  are  columns  there  showing  the  number  of 
those  residing  in  any  one  State  who  were  born  in  other  States  of 
the  Union.  There  are  two  States  remarkable  in  this  particular. 
New  York,  of  course,  is  one ;  for  people  naturally  remove  there  from 
the  other  States,  to  take  part  in  the  varied  intercourse  that  she  main- 
tains with  all  of  them.  Massachusetts  is  the  other.  She  receives 
recruits  from  the  neighboring  States  of  the  North,  who,  regarding 
her  metropolis  as  the  central  point  of  New  England,  desire  to 
coine  here.  And  let  them  come  !  The  lines  on  the  map  which 
mark  the  boundaries  of  State  government  should  be  no  barriers 
against  the  entrance  of  those  who  desire  to  participate  in  the  ad- 
vantages which  by  the  geography  of  the  country  belong  naturally 
to  them  as  well  as  to  us,  but  which  the  division  of  territory  leaves 
in  our  possession.  We  bid  them  welcome  to  join  with  us  and 
enter  on  the  commerce  of  the  ocean,  to  which  we  hold  the  avenue. 
Even  if  they  come  to  share  in  the  distribution  of  the  offices  which 
the  common  government  of  the  nation  has  established  in  this  me- 
tropolis of  New  England,  so  long  as  they  are  good  men,  suited  to 
the  places  to  which  they  are  called,  we  bid  them  welcome  still ; 
cheerfully  recognizing  their  right  to  share  in  benefits  incident  to 
that  importance  which  we  have  gained  in  part  by  intercourse  with 
them  and  from  internal  resources  common  to  them  and  to  us. 
But,  however  any  one  may  choose  to  account  for  it,  the  fact  is 
clear,  that  Massachusetts  is  not  receding.  Those  who  leave  her 
may  look  back  upon  her  still,  with  all  the  satisfaction  that  has 
ever  been  felt  by  those  who  have  regarded  her  as  their  home  and 
pointed  to  her  as  such  ;  including  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
heads  of  departments  in  the  General  Government,  two  recently  of 
of  the  highest  distinction  in  the  department  of  State,  and  foreign 
ambassadors,  three  in  succession  recently  representing  us  at  that 
Court  in  Europe,  where,  perhaps,  we  should  be  most  desirous  of 
appearing  advantageously,  with  eminent  success. 


20 


SUPPOSED  REMOVAL  OF  COMMERCE  FROM  BOSTON. 

"We  are  told  that  our  great  commercial  houses  are  going  to  New 
York.  What  is  there  in  all  that  ?  Stated  with  precision,  it  is, 
not  that  our  great  houses  are  leaving  us,  hut  that  they  find  it  con- 
venient to  establish  branches.  It  is  the  consequence  of  our  exu- 
berant growth.  Massachusetts  makes  more  than  she  wants. 
When  there  is  competition  among  the  buyers  to  get  the  goods, 
they  come  here  fast  enough.  When  we  have  more  goods  than  we 
can  readily  sell,  and  become  ourselves  competitors  on  the  other 
hand,  we  employ  our  outposts  of  agency.  But  purchasers  usually 
prefer  to  deal  with  a  principal  rather  than  his  agent,  believing 
that  an  agent  acts  usually  under  limits  that  might  be  somewhat 
relaxed  if  the  principal  were  on  the  spot.  The  principal,  too, 
looks  more  exclusively  to  his  own  concerns  than  agents  sometimes 
do,  and  at  New  York  gains  facilities  in  finance,  also,  that  are  not 
always  to  be  found  here.  We  are,  therefore,  only  conforming  to 
a  necessity  that  always  existed  since  we  became  manufacturers, 
but  which  is  found  to  increase  with  the  increase  of  business.  Five 
and  twenty  years  ago  we  tried  "  New  England  sales "  here,  in 
the  sanguine  belief  that  purchasers  would  assemble  at  stated 
periods  and  clear  our  warehouses  in  a  day.  But  the  plan  was  a 
failure.  An  association  formed  to  promote  it,  has  been  kept 
alive  to  this  day ;  and  holds  an  annual  meeting,  with  no  result  but 
a  dinner,  partly  paid  for  from  a  small  remnant  of  its  funds,  and 
an  annual  conclusion  that  the  channels  of  commerce  are  not  easily 
to  be  changed. 

We  are  told  that  our  young  men  are  going  away.  So  they 
have  always  been  going  away,  from  a  natural  spirit  of  enterprise, 
to  secure  that  elsewhere  which  they  could  not  gain  here  by  any 
change  of  circumstances  that  lies  within  our  control,  tunnel  or  no 
tunnel. 

EXPORTS  OF  THE  UNION  IN  FLOUR  AND  GRAIN. 

We  are  told  by  the  majority  of  our  Legislative  Committee,  who 
report  this  bill,  what  a  vast  amount  of  produce  reaches  the  Hud- 
son from  the  West,  and  how  small  a  portion  of  it  we  bring  here  ; 


21 

and,  then,  they  add, — "  This  is  humiliating  to  Massachusetts  !" 
Is  it  ?  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  why,  any  more  than  it  is  humili- 
ating, as  some  people  think,  that  we  raise  so  little  wheat  of  our 
own.  Massachusetts  knows  how  to  do  better  than  to  transport 
what  she  does  not  need,  under  the  orders  of  others.  She  takes 
what  she  wants  for  her  own  use,  and  leaves  the  owners  to  do  as 
they  please  with  the  rest.  She  is  too  wise  and  independent  to 
act  from  a  fear  of  their  comments.  When  we  talk  of  humiliation 
however,  it  would  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  she  would  be  cer- 
tain to  meet  it,  if  we  should  undertake  this  tunnel  and  fail  to  com- 
plete it !  When  we  talk  with  so  much  ease  of  raising  the 
Western  merchandise  that  is  to  arrive  here  from  little  more  than 
50,000  tons,  now  received  over  the  Western  Road,  to  200,000 
tons,  it  would  be  well  to  think  of  the  humiliation  that  we  might 
feel  if  we  should  contrive  to  get  that  quantity,  or  a  quarter  part 
of  it,  here  in  flour,  (50,000  tons  being  equal  to  nearly  half  a 
million  of  barrels,)  and  then  find  that  we  could  not  sell  it !  Such 
a  glut  for  one  year  would  give  Boston  a  name  and  expose  her  to 
ridicule  from  which  she  would  not  recover  for  years  afterwards. 
Of  course,  any  great  addition  to  what  we  now  receive  must  come 
in  flour.  The  wool,  leather,  &c.,  that  we  require  from  the  West, 
for  our  manufactures,  find  their  way  here  now,  and  cannot  be  in- 
creased much,  except  as  our  manufactures  increase.  Now, 
150,000  tons  of  flour  would  be  equal  to  nearly  a  million  and  a 
half  of  barrels  ;  and  this  would  rather  exceed  the  average  quantity 
annually  exported  from  the  whole  Union  for  twenty  years  past, 
leaving  out  one  year  of  famine  in  Ireland,*  and  including  three 
other  years  of  great  scarcity  there.  We  cannot  expect  any  such 
addition  in  quantity,  then,  for  the  purposes  of  foreign  trade. 


*  Since  these  remarks  were  made,  the  question  has  been  put, — "  If  all 
this  be  true,  and  we  are  not  to  become  great  exporters  of  flour  and  grain, 
what  is  to  be  done  with  the  vast  quantity  that  is  to  be  produced  in  the 
West  ?"  The  only  answer  seems  to  be,  that  we  shall  use  most  of  it,  as  we 
have  done,  for  our  own  consumption.  In  general,  each  nation  raises  its 
own  breadstuff's.  When  there  is  a  poor  harvest  in  England,  and  there  is  a 
great  stir  in  Europe  because  she  is  importing  grain,  the  importation  rarely 
amounts  to  five  per  cent,  of  her  usual  product.  Her  importation  from  all  the 
world  in  such  cases  is  usually  not  more  than  what  is  equal  to  six  or  eight  mil- 


22 


CONTINUATION  FROM  TUNNEL  OVER  OTHER  ROADS. 

Yet  an  inquiry  into  the  character  of  the  roads  that  are  to  make 
out  the  whole  line  from  Troj  will  show  that  this  immense  increase 
is  indispensable  to  the  low  rates  of  freight  that  are  talked  of,  and 
that  if  the  city  or  the  State  needs  a  new  impulse,  this  tunnel  can- 
lions  of  barrels  of  flour,  and  much  of  this  comes,  of  course,  from  the 
north  of  Europe.  We  are  acting  as  General  Jackson  once  advised  that 
we  should,  whether  it  be  in  consequence  of  his  advice  or  otherwise.  He 
placed  agriculture  first  among  the  great  interests  of  the  nation  ;  but  he 
said  it  would  never  do  for  us  all  to  be  employed  in  tilling  the  soil.  We 
must  create  a  market  for  the  surplus  within  our  own  borders,  by  establish- 
ing manufactures,  he  thought ;  or,  we  should  be  in  complete  subjection  to 
other  nations,  both  in  buying  and  selling.  This  is  what  we  are  doing. 
The  single  lact  that  the  blast  furnaces  and  iron  mills  throughout  the  Union 
are  once  more  in  successful  operation,  after  long  depression,  probably  keeps 
the  price  of  flour  where  it  is  at  this  day.  But,  in  truth,  the  increase  of  our 
population  is  greater  than  the  increase  of  wheat  in  the  Union,  as  appears 
by  returns  of  the  last  census. 

The  following  tables  will  be  found  interesting  and  convenient.  They 
are  taken  from  the  Boston  Atlas  of  June  2d.  The  editor  of  that  paper  has, 
heretofore,  when  in  Congress,  collected  and  published  in  his  speeches  valu- 
able statistics  on  the  subject,  and  seems  to  keep  his  attention  alive  to  it. 
It  will  be  observed  that  there  is  no  great  increase  in  the  export  of  flour  for 
twenty  years,  leaving  out  four  years  of  scarcity  in  Ireland,  and  that  the 
increase  is  very  unsteady ;  while  there  is  a  great  and  steady  growth  in  the 
export  of  manufactures,  excepting  four  years  of  depression. 

Exports  of  wheat  and  flour,  reduced  to  bushels,  reckoning  five  bushels  to 
the  barrel,  with  the  value  of  the  same  for  twenty-one  years,  from  1831  to 
1851  inclusive. 

Years.  Bushels.  Value. 

1831 9,441,090 $10,461,715 

1832 4,407,899 4,974,123 

1833 4,811,061 5,642,602 

1834 4,213,708 4,560,379 

1835 3,944,742 4,446,182 

1836 2,529,062 3,574,561 

1837 1,610,898 3,014,415 

1838 2,247,096 3,617,724 

1839 4,712,080 7,069,361 

1840 11,198,365 11,779,098 

1841 8,447,670 8,582,527 

1842 7,237,968 8,292,308 


23 

not  give  it.  The  road  through  it  comprises  only  forty-four  miles 
of  the  route.  It  is  to  be  continued  westward  to  Troy  by  a  road 
in  New  York,  is  to  emerge  eastwardly  on  the  Vermont  and  Mas- 
sachusetts  Road,  and  be  continued  over  the  Fitchburg  Road  to 
Boston.  Instead  of  half  a  cent  a  ton  or  passenger  per  mile,  it  now 
costs  on  one  of  these  last  roads,  the  Fitchburg,  more  than  a  cent, 

Years.  Bushels.  Value. 

1843 4,519,055 4,027,182 

1844 7,751,587 7,232,898 

1845 6,365,8GG 5,735,372 

1846 13,061,175 13,360,644 

1847 22,314,431 32,183,161 

1848 12,631,679 15,863,284 

1849 12,067,599 13,037,430  '  . 

1850 7,535,901 7,742,315 

1851 11,028,397 11,543,063 

Value  of  the  export  of  manufactures  and  of  wheat  and  flour  for  twenty- 
one  years,  compared. 

Years.  Manufactures.  Wheat. 

1831 $5,804,199 $10,461,715 

1832 5,424,014 4,974,123 

1833 6,888,229 5,642,802 

1834 6,013,385 4,560,797 

1835 6,937,999 4,446,182 

1836 6,915,748 3,574,561 

1837 7,811,848 3,014,415 

1838 9,010,358 3,617,724 

1839 8,019,271 7,069,361 

1840 10.613,767 11,779,098 

1841 10,775,586 8,582,527 

1842 9,769,857 8,292,308 

1843 7,354,726 4,027,182 

1844 9,680,534 7,232,898 

1845 11,007,121 5,735,372 

1846 11,482,854 13,360,644 

1847 11,847,288 32,183,161 

1848 14,717,175 15,863,284 

1849 12,947,705 13,037,430 

1850 17,145,203 7,742,315 

1851 22,209,262 11,543,063 


Total $212,376,329         $186,740,962 


24 

and  on  the  other,  over  two  cents  per  mile.  Whatever  they  can 
do,  the  Western  Road  can  do.  What  the  Western  cannot  do, 
they  cannot  do.  The  annual  returns,  which  are  made  under  oath 
by  all  the  Companies,  and  have  been  laid  before  us,  show  that  the 
cost  of  transportation  on  the  Western  Railroad  is  about  as  low  as 
on  the  best  roads  of  the  State.  The  Western  Road  is  under  one 
Company,  and  is  equal  in  length  to  a  combination  of  three  of  the 
roads  on  the  proposed  route,  which  is  a  great  advantage.  Such 
combination  would  be  of  peculiar  importance  to  the  new  road  now 
proposed,  to  avoid  opposition  in  interest.  This  road,  which  is  to  be 
forty-four  miles  long,  is  to  be  considered,  I  understand,  as  fifty-four 
miles  in  the  division  of  receipts.  That  is,  the  tunnel,  four  miles  in 
length,  is  to  be  considered  as  fourteen  miles,  in  consideration  of  in- 
creased cost.  But  what  security  is  there  that  such  an  arrange- 
ment will  be  permanent  ?  I  shall  now  show  that  if  it  were  so, 
something  more  would  be  necessary  to  secure  the  Commonwealth 
for  the  use  of  her  credit. 

UTMOST  PROBABLE  RESULT  FROM  THE  TUNNEL. 

After  what  has  been  stated,  unless  it  can  be  refuted,  no  reliance 
can  be  placed,  I  think,  on  the  expectation  of  200,000  tons  of 
merchandise  for  the  new  road  between  Troy  and  Boston.  If  the, 
scheme  of  drawing  away  from  the  Western  Road  every  ton  that  it 
now  receives  from  the  Hudson,  to  Boston  or  back,  the  quantity 
being  something  over  50,000  tons,  be  admitted  as  feasible,  and 
the  supposition  admitted  that  it  may  be  raised  to  100,000  tons, 
impartial  people  will  probably  think  that  more  is  allowed  than  will 
be  realized  on  the  new  route..  As  to  passengers,  there  passed  the 
last  year  to  and  from  the  Hudson  35,000,  and  it  is  supposed  that 
if  the  fare  be  reduced  to  two  dollars,  65,000  more  will  come  and 
go.  How  this  inducement  is  to  operate  to  such  an  extent,  it  is 
not  easy  to  imagine.  An  increase  of  business,  even  as  large  as  is 
hoped  for,  is  not  likely  to  draw  them  ;  for  business  is  very  easily 
managed  by  mail  and  telegraph  in  these  days,  with  only  an  occa- 
sional visit  from  the  principal.  People  who  travel  for  pleasure 
generally  go  where  they  prefer  to  go,  without  regard  to  a  small 
difference  of  fare.  And  people  whose  time  is  important  probably 


would  not  coine  out  of  their  way  to  Boston,  if  they  were  to  receive 
two  dollars  instead  of  paying  it.  It  would  be  a  liberal  allowance 
to  suppose  that  all  the  passengers  were  drawn  from  the  Western 
Road  and  increased  to  50,000.  What  will  the  whole  amount  to  ? 
At  half  a  cent  a  ton  per  mile,  for  cost,  and  the  same  for  profit, 
100,000  tons  and  50,000  passengers  would  yield,  as  profit,  for  the 
forty-four  miles  of  the  road  proposed,  through  the  tunnel,  only 
$33,000.  But  we  are  told  that  ten  miles  more  are  to  be  allowed 
for  the  tunnel  in  the  division  of  receipts.  This  would  make 
$40,500,  and  if  we  allow  $10,000  for  mails,  (supposing  that  the 
Western  Road  is  to  lose  the  mail  contract  also,)  it  would  be  $50,500 
for  profit.  But  the  interest  on  the  loan  guarantied  by  the  Com- 
monwealth will  be  $100,000.  Where  is  the  rest  to  come  from  ? 
We  are  told  from  local  business.  Let  us  look  a  little  at  this  local 
travelling  and  business.  But  allow  me,  first,  to  remark  that,  while 
I  have,  all  this  time,  been  arguing  on  the  supposition  of  the  counsel 
for  the  petitioners,  that  half  a  cent  a  ton  or  passenger  per  mile 
would  cover  the  cost  of  transportation,  I  have  not  met  one  practi- 
cal man  acquainted  with  business  on  railroads,  whether  for  or 
against  this  project,  and  I  have  talked  recently  with  several,  who 
believed  this  supposition  to  be  correct.  I  believe  even  Mr.  Peter 
Clark  does  not  venture  to  say  that.  He  thinks  that  two  dollars 
a  ton  would  leave  a  fair  profit,  which  is  a  safer  mode  of  expres- 
sion ;  but  to  make  the  assertion,  he  is  obliged  to  couple  it  with 
his  enormous  estimate  of  business  to  be  expected.  If  that  ad- 
vantage could  be  obtained,  probably  the  rates  on  the  Western 
Railroad  would  be  much  lower  than  they  are. 

LOCAL  BUSINESS. 

In  regard  to  local  business,  suppose  that  the  turnrel  were  now 
completed  and  the  road  open  to-day.  We  are  told  that  the  town  of 
Adams,  on  the  western  side  of  the  Hoosac  Mountain,  and  Shel- 
burne  and  Coleraine,  on  the  eastern  side,  would  send  here  a  large 
quantity  of  manufactured  goods.  Suppose  they  should,  what 
would  become  of  them?  The  great  complaint,  now,  about  our 
own  manufactures  here,  which  necessarily  come  first  to  Boston,  is, 
that  they  are  sent  forward  to  New  York.  Would  not  a  large 


26 

portion  of  those  coining  from  the  towns  that  I  mention,  go  also  to 
New  York  ?  Of  course  they  would.  And  they  can  go  there 
now.  I  presume  they  do  ;  and  that  we  should  have  but  few  of 
them,  if  the  tunnel  were  now  finished.  A  railroad  from  Adams 
opens  the  way,  crossing  the  Western  Railroad,  to  New  York. 
Another  passes  down  the  Connecticut  River,  also  on  the  way  to 
New  York,  from  Greenfield  adjoining  the  towns  of  Shelburne  and 
Coleraine.  The  other  towns  in  that  region  consist  only  of  farm- 
ing and  grazing  land,  and  I  presume  that  much  is  not  expected 
from  them. 

DETRIMENT  TO  WESTERN  RAILROAD. 

This  great  local  business,  then,  that  is  to  help  out  the  business 
to  and  from  Troy  and  Boston,  is  not,  after  all,  to  be  found  on  the 
immediate  line  of  the  new  road,  but  is  to  be  drawn  through  a 
wide  range  of  country  and  in  a  great  measure  from  the  Western 
Railroad,  a  road  in  which  the  State  has  a  deep  interest.  First 
its  long  business  is  to  be  taken  from  it,  and  then  its  local  business. 
The  scheme  reminds  one  of  a  case  that  might  serve  to  illustrate 
the  spirit  in  which  the  Commonwealth  would  seem  to  act,  if  aid- 
ing to  build  up  such  a  rival  to  her  own  property.  When  travel- 
ling at  the  South,  a  few  years  since,  I  learned  that  a  steam- 
boat on  the  Mississippi,  called  the  Diana,  having  passed,  shortly 
before,  from  a  certain  point  in  Arkansas,  which  is  a  favorite  place 
of  starting  for  a  trial  of  speed,  and  reached  New  Orleans  in  rather 
a  shorter  time  than  any  boat  had  ever  run  that  distance  before, 
a  man  was  then  building  a  boat,  which  he  swore,  "  by  the 
Eternal,"  should  beat  the  Diana,  or  he  would  blow  her  out 
of  the  water  and  himself  in  her ;  the  wonder  being  that  the 
same  man  owned  the  two  boats  !  While  this  new  road  is  not  likely 
to  do  good  by  effecting  any  favorable  change  of  importance  in 
the  State,  it  would  be  likely  to  do  some  mischief.  Our  people 
have  embarked,  debts  included,  more  than  sixty  millions  in  rail- 
roads, no  one  of  which  has  any  income  to  spare  ;  and  it  is  better 
for  the  community  to  pursue  such  a  policy  as  will  make  that  enor- 
mous investment  more  productive,  than  to  add  new  competitors  in 
the  business.  Professedly,  the  local  business  talked  of  for  this 


27 

road  is  to  be  drawn  in  a  great  measure  from  others,  North  and 
South ;  the  basis  being  cheap  freight  on  flour.  When  I  have 
stated  that  there  can  only  be  a  gain  of  three  cents  and  a  frac- 
tion, I  have  been  told  that  even  three  and  a  half  cents  is  an  im- 
portant difference  on  a  barrel  of  flour.  How  does  it  happen,  then, 
that  while  three  and  half  cents  are  so  important  on  the  Connecti- 
cut River,  a  difference  of  ten  cents  at  Boston  is  thought  to  be  so 
trifling  between  us  and  New  York  ?  If  three  and  a  half  cents,  or 
double  that,  if  six  or  seven  cents,  on  a  barrel  of  flour,  would  offer 
such  an  advantage  that,  by  means  of  it,  when  the  tunnel  is  fin- 
ished, Greenfield  might  outgrow  Springfield,  how  are  we  in  Boston 
to  rival  New  York  with  a  supposed  difference  of  ten  cents  in 
price,  (which  I  have  shown  must  be  at  least  fifteen  cents,)  against 
us  ?  Sir,  this  glowing  picture  of  business  on  the  way  will  not,  I 
think,  bear  examination  any  more  than  the  other  part  of  the 
scheme,  for  diverting  what  is  equal  to  the  whole  export  of  the 
country,  in  flour,  to  Boston.  But  if  it  proves  any  thing,  it  is,  that 
the  tunnel  is  far  more  likely  to  do  injury  to  the  Western  Railroad 
than  it  is  to  do  any  good  whatever  to  this  city,  or  to  the  State 
at  large. 

CAUTION  FROM  RESULT   OF  WESTERN  RAILROAD. 

In  the  report  of  the  testimony  before  the  Legislative  Commit- 
tee, there  is  a  passing  remark  by  one  witness  (Mr.  Degrand) 
which  deserves  attention.  He  was  called  to  testify  concerning 
the  summit  cut  on  the  Western  Road  and  the  rate  of  charges 
there.  That  witness  has  credit  for  sagacity,  and  I  think  deser- 
vedly so.  He  took  an  early  and  warm  interest  in  the  road  and 
helped  to  sustain  it  in  disastrous  times.  It  was  he,  I  believe,  who 
proposed  and  ably  urged  the  establishment  of  the  sinking  funds 
for  the  debt  and  liabilities  of  the  State  incurred  for  the  road. 
He  has  always  been  a  great  advocate  for  low  fares  and  charges  ; 
and  his  advice,  in  that  respect,  has  been  adopted  and  carried  so 
far,  if  not  on  the  Western  Road  on  others,  that  the  extreme  was 
reached,  and  necessity  compelled  the  Directors  to  raise  them. 
He  now  speaks  with  disappointment  of  what  he  finds  to  be  the  re- 
sult of  all  that  he  did  for  so  great  an  undertaking  ;  and  it  appears 


28 

that  if  he  had  foreseen  it,  he  "  would  not  have  started  a  peg  in 
urging  it  forward."  What  shall  we  infer  from  this  ?  Is  the  road 
mismanaged  ?  Is  the  President  ignorant  and  unfit  for  his  place  ? 
Are  the  agents  incompetent  or  unfaithful  ?  If  so,  where  are  the 
Directors  on  the  part  of  the  State,  chosen  annually  in  our  Con- 
vention of  the  two  Houses,  to  look  after  our  interests  ?  It  is  not 
so.  There  is  no  mismanagement.  But,  with  all  his  foresight,  it 
seems  he  was  merely  mistaken.  Like  men  of  greater  sagacity 
than  he,  or  I,  or  any  one  here,  he  finds  that  human  judgment  is 
fallible,  in  railroads  and  in  commerce,  as  the  lives  of  distinguished 
men  show  it  to  have  been  in  statesmanship  and  war.  As  he  was 
mistaken  once,  he  may  be  so  again.  And  as  he  "  would  not  have 
moved  a  peg,"  if  he  had  foreseen  the  whole,  I  think  our  only  safe 
conclusion  from  his  testimony  is,  that  we  had  better  not  "  move  a 
peg"  in  this  business,  until  we  hear  clearer  reasons  for  it  than 
have  yet  been  given. 

One  may  hear  strange  things  said,  by  the  advocates  of  this 
measure,  in  the  streets  and  about  this  chamber.  Whether  they 
are  to  be  urged  here  I  cannot  say,  but  as  I  am  speaking  in  antici- 
pation of  the  friends  of  the  bill,  I  am  obliged  to  notice  and  answer 
some  of  them,  now,  that  I  may  not  be  forced  to  trouble  the  Senate 
a  second  time  in  this  debate. 


INFLUENCE  OF  PRICES  ON  TRADE. 

It  is  said  that  what  we  want  is  to  "turn  the  scale"  against 
New  York;  and  that  vessels  actually  go  there  from  Maine 
for  flour  instead  of  coming  here.  How  are  we  to  "  turn  the 
scale  "  by  a  route  that  confessedly  leaves  us  with  a  considerable 
difference  of  price  against  us  ?  Suppose  a  coaster  of  100  tons 
to  sail  from  Maine  for  flour,  after  the  tunnel  is  finished.  The 
most  desirable  rate  aimed  at  by  the  petitioners  is  that  she  might 
find  it  to  be  only  ten  cents  a  barrel  cheaper  in  New  York  than 
here.  Yet  as  she  would  carry  800  or  1,000  barrels,  this  is  a 
gain  of  $80  or  $100  to  be  made  by  going  there,  and  quite  suffi- 
cient to  induce  her  to  pass  us  by.  If,  as  I  say,  the  difference  is 
to  be  fifteen  cents,  the  gain  is  half  as  much  more.  Now,  the  last 
year  we  had  an  urgent  application  here  to  restrict  the  fees  of 


29 

pilots  ;  and  it  was  testified,  as  an  inducement,  before  a  Committee 
of  the  two  houses,  of  which  I  was  Chairman,  that  the  mere  differ- 
ence in  pilotage,  a  trifle  comparatively,  not  a  fourth  of  what  I  have 
mentioned  in  flour,  was  sufficient  in  some  cases  to  cause  vessels 
from  Nova  Scotia  to  go  to  New  York  instead  of  coming  here  !  How 
can  we  expect  vessels  from  Maine,  then,  to  come  here  with  such  a 
difference  against  us  in  flour  ?  When  I  assert  that  no  reliance  can 
long  be  placed  on  trade  to  California  and  Australia,  whatever  it  may 
be  just  now,  because  one  will  supply  herself  and  Oregon  will  sup- 
ply the  other  before  the  tunnel  can  be  made,  even  if  five  years 
will  be  sufficient  to  complete  it ;  I  hear  it  answered,  "  Then  we 
must  look  for  some  other  new  countries."  And  where,  in  the 
wide  world,  are  these  new  countries  to  be  found  ?  Is  Massachu- 
setts to  make  a  tunnel  for  trade  with  countries  that  are  yet  to 
be  discovered  ? 

MEANS  FOR  TRANSPORTATION  WESTWARD. 

I  have  been  told,  repeatedly,  that  there  is  pressing  necessity 
for  this  tunnel,  because  means  are  wanted  to  transport  westward 
the  goods  that  are  purchased  in  Boston,  the  Western  Railroad 
being  unable  to  do  the  business  required ;  that  if  the  goods  could 
only  be  carried  away,  western  traders  would  be  glad  to  come  here 
and  purchase  their  heavy  goods ;  and  that  you  have  on  your 
table,  Sir,  a  petition  in  aid  of  this  measure,  signed  by  dry  goods 
dealers  and  others  in  Boston,  whose  capital  exceeds  thirty  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  and  who  urge  the  passage  of  the  bill  before  us 
especially  on  this  ground.  I  have  been  requested  to  see  one  of 
them,  in  particular,  who,  it  was  said  would  give  me  correct  infor- 
mation on  the  subject.  I  have  seen  him.  Availing  myself  of  the 
early  adjournment  of  the  Senate,  two  days  since,  I  went  to  his 
place  of  business ;  and  I  believe  that  I  shall  throw  light  on  the 
matter  before  us,  in  several  important  points,  by  stating  just  what 
passed.  The  firm  occupies  the  greater  part  of  three  large  stores, 
opened  into  one  extensive  establishment.  It  was,  I  may  say  in 
common  phrase,  a  sight  to  see,  showing  the  magnitude  of  the 
operations  in  business  here.  The  principal  partner  was  seat- 
ed in  a  position  where  he  had  a  view  of  every  person  who  entered, 


30 

and  of  the  direction  that  might  be  given  to  each  purchaser,  ac- 
cording to  his  inquiries.  I  told  him  that  I  had  come  in  conse- 
quence of  this  petition  signed  by  him,  understanding  that  he  could 
give  me  important  information  to  aid  me  in  deciding  how  to  vote. 
He  remarked  that  he  really  knew  very  little  about  the  tunnel ; 
and  that  he  had  signed  the  paper  offered  him,  as  he  should  any 
other,  because  he  was  informed  that  it  tended  to  promote  the 
prosperity  of  Boston,  which  he  had  much  at  heart.  I  told 
him  that  I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  this,  and  that  I  supposed 
others  had  signed  it  much  in  the  same  way ;  but  that  I  understood 
that  he  could  give  me  accurate  information  of  the  difficulties  at- 
tending the  transportation  of  goods  westward  from  here.  On 
that,  he  answered  that  he  had  much  to  tell  me ;  that  he  could 
not  say  that  he  had  a  letter  of  complaint  as  often  as  every  day, 
but  such  letters  were  numerous  ;  that  he  happened  to  be  answer- 
ing one  of  the  sort  when  he  was  applied  to,  to  sign  the  petition  re- 
ferred to,  and  he  did  it  the  more  readily  on  that  account.  He  then 
offered  to  read  me  one.  It  was  dated  at  Lexington  in  Kentucky. 
The  writer  complained  of  great  wrong  because  the  goods  which 
he  had  bought  here  had  not  reached  Cincinnati  at  the  time  fixed. 
He  could  not  get  them  over  from  there  in  due  time.  His  custom- 
ers, therefore,  had  gone  to  Louisville  and  supplied  themselves 
there  ;  and  his  Spring  trade,  which  might  have  been  excellent  if 
his  purchases  had  arrived,  had  turned  out  ill.  He,  therefore,  re- 
lied on  the  honor  and  honesty  of  the  parties  in  Boston,  who  were 
answerable,  for  voluntary  and  prompt  redress.  He  had  suffered 
as  much  or  more,  he  said,  in  regard  to  Ms  goods  from  New  York, 
but  had  no  hope  of  justice  there,  if  a  lawsuit  for  damages  could 
possibly  be  defeated  !  Of  Boston,  he  hoped  .better  things.  I  then 
inquired  whether  these  delays,  which  seemed  to  be  common  to 
New  York  and  Boston  both,  had  really  occurred  on  our  Western 
Railroad.  The  principal  of  the  firm  was  unable  to  tell  me,  but 
obligingly  summoned  his  shipping  clerk,  a  very  intelligent  person. 
I  explained  to  him  the  object  of  the  inquiry,  and  the  importance 
of  ascertaining  with  precision  whether  the  trouble  arose  on  the 
route  between  here  and  Albany,  or  on  that  between  Albany  and 
Buffalo.  He  answered  that  it  was  neither  on  one  nor  the  other ; 
that  the  delay  had  taken  place  between  BUFFALO  and  CLEAVE- 


31 

LAND  !  I  then  inquired  whether  any  case  had  occurred  in  which 
a  customer  of  the  firm  had  suffered  from  delay  on  this  side  of 
Albany ;  and  he  answered  none.  I  asked  if  he  knew  of  any  such 
case  among  other  firms,  where  the  fault  lay  with  the  Western  Rail- 
road ;  and  he  answered  that  he  did  not.  I  expressed  my  readi- 
ness to  receive  any  such  information,  if,  on  conference  with  other 
dealers,  it  could  be  furnished  ;  but  I  have  received  none. 

You  have  the  whole  story,  Sir,  and  it  hardly  requires  com- 
ment. All  the  papers  on  your  table  establish  nothing  to  show 
that  the  tunnel  is  required  to  furnish  additional  facilities  for  trans- 
porting merchandise  from  here  to  the  Hudson,  on  the  ground  of 
any  delay  on  the  Western  Railroad ;  nor  is  there  a  tittle  of  evi- 
dence elsewhere,  to  that  effect. 

The  commercial  witness  of  the  petitioners  testified  to  nothing 
of  the  sort  before  the  Committee.  He  speaks  of  some  flour  that 
was  detained  at  Ogdensburgh  ;  but  every  body  knows  that  busi- 
ness was  deranged  on  the  Vermont  Central  Road  by  a  fire  which 
destroyed  some  of  their  cars  and  by  other  difficulties  in  its  affairs  ; 
and  the  delay  may  have  been  owing  to  that.  But  it  has  no  bear- 
ing on  the  point  in  question. 

If  any  one  will  take  the  trouble  to  inquire  into  the  real  mean- 
ing of  these  petitions  in  aid  of  the  bill  before  us,  it  will  prob- 
ably be  found  that  they  are  to  be  taken  only  as  the  expression  of 
a  wish  for  any  thing  that  is  likely  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the 
city,  provided  that  it  is  proper  to  grant  it.  If  any  Senator  will 
ask  whether  the  subject  has  been  thoroughly  examined  by  those 
whose  signatures  he  sees  there,  and  whether  they  can  assure  him 
that,  on  the  oath  he  has  taken,  it  is  his  duty  to  vote  for  this  bill,  he 
probably  will  meet  a  decided  negative.  If  we  could  make  it  out 
that  it  would  be  wise  so  to  use  the  credit  of  the  State  that  west- 
ern produce  could  be  brought  here  for  the  mere  cost  of  transpor- 
tation ;  and,  as  the  cars  must  return,  that  goods  purchased  here, 
for  the  West,  should  be  carried  as  far  as  Troy  for  nothing  at  all ; 
the  dealers  here  would,  no  doubt,  be  very  well  pleased.  The 
nearer  we  can  come  to  that,  the  better  for  them.  Even  ruinous 
rivalry  between  the  roads  might  help  their  business.  But  they 
consider  that  the  responsibility  is  with  us.  While  they  let  us 
know  their  wishes,  if  it  would  not  be  proper  to  grant  what  they 


want,  they  expect  us  to  refuse  it.  They  suppose  that  we  are  se- 
lected and  placed  here  for  our  wisdom  and  intelligence  ;  and  giving 
us  credit,  perhaps,  for  quite  as  much  of  either  as  we  can  claim  to 
possess,  they,  like  the  rest  of  the  community,  expect  that  we 
shall  exercise  sound  discretion.  They  do  not  offer  aid  themselves 
by  taking  stock  in  the  tunnel  route.  The  Tremont  House  was 
completed  by  the  aid  of  business  men,  who  wished  that  purchasers 
from  a  distance  should  have  comfortable  accommodations ;  but 
they  did  not  aid  in  building  rival  hotels.  There  was  general  con- 
tribution to  make  the  Western  Railroad,  but  nobody  contributes 
to  this.  Yet  the  same  spirit  exists  in  the  community  as  I  have 
proofs  to  show,  if  necessary.  The  bill  is  guarded  by  some  con- 
ditions that  stock  shall  be  secured  and  work  done  before  the  aid 
of  the  State  is  given.  But  these  conditions  may  all  be  removed 
by  future  enactments,  with  such  importunity  as  is  used  here. 

FERRY  AT  ALBANY. 

The  ferry  at  Albany  has  been  spoken  of  as  causing  a  serious 
addition  to  the  cost  of  transportation  on  the  Western  Road.  The 
produce  coming  eastward,  however,  is  delivered  on  one  side  or  the 
other  of  the  river,  as  the  owner  prefers,  without  additional  cost, 
just  as  coal  or  cotton  is  delivered  at  one  wharf  or  another  in  Bos- 
ton, as  is  preferred,  even  at  a  loss  sometimes  of  a  day  or  more  to 
the  vessel  that  brings  it. 

Yet  the  counsel  for  the  petitioners  informed  the  Committee  that 
he  could  prove  this  ferry  to  be  equal  to  an  addition  of  100  miles 
in  railroad  travel.  He  had  claimed  an  addition,  before,  of  sixty- 
five  miles  for  grades  and  curves,  and  has  since  said  that  is  not 
enough.  How  much  shall  we  add,  then?  Suppose  we  add 
about  one  half  to  it,  and  call  this  latter  item  also  100  miles. 
Then  we  shall  have  200  miles  of  constructive  distance,  and  200 
of  actual  distance.  When  I  have  alluded  to  something  of  extrav- 
agance in  the  argument  of  the  counsel  on  this  and  other  matters,  I 
have  been  asked  if  I  cannot  allow  a  little  for  the  zeal  of  an  advo- 
cate in  arguing  his  cause  ?  To  be  sure,  I  can.  But  if  his  zeal 
makes  400  out  of  200  so  easily,  I  look  elsewhere  with  greater 
care  and  precision,  on  that  account,  for  the  truth  of  the  case. 


HIGH  GRADES. 

The  high  grades  that  have  been  spoken  of  require,  perhaps,  no 
further  comment.  The  additional  power  that  they  render  neces- 
sary can  be  furnished  by  two  extra  engines,  the  cost  of  which 
would  be,  with  allowance  for  deterioration,  only  $5,000  a  year 
for  each.  In  all  these  matters  the  main  question  is,  what  will  be 
the  comparative  cost  of  freight.  The  Western  Road  now  brings 
flour  at  31^  cents  the  barrel.  The  petitioners  do  not  pretend 
that  they  can  bring  it  for  less  than  21  cents,  and  probably  no  im- 
partial person,  who  looks  into  the  subject,  will  believe  that  they 
can  pay  interest  on  their  loan  even  at  25  or  28  cents. 

You  may  hear  a  calculation,  Sir,  that  the  Western  Road  and 
the  Worcester,  making  the  route  from  Albany  to  Boston,  cost,  to- 
gether, more  than  the  four  roads  which  are  to  make  up  the  route 
from  Troy  to  Boston  will  have  cost  when  the  tunnel  is  completed  ; 
and,  therefore,  they  can  afford  to  carry  merchandise  cheaper  on 
the  latter  route.  There  is  less  in  this  than  might  be  supposed. 
It  only  affects  dividends.  The  main  question  still  is,  what  will 
each  road  carry  freight  for.  With  sharp  rivalry  on  the  two 
routes,  there  will  probably  be  little  profit  on  either.  But  the 
tunnel  road  must  charge  something  beyond  actual  cost,  for  the  in- 
terest on  its  loan,  and  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  cannot 
go  much  below  two  cents,  instead  of  half  a  cent  in  mere  cost,  with- 
out a  greater  business  than  it  is  likely  to  get.  If  the  Fitchburg 
and  the  New  York  road  are  to  work  for  cost  only,  the  Western 
can  do  it  as  well  as  either. 


MACHINE  FOR  TUNNEL. 

I  remarked  that  it  was  not  my  intention  to  throw  doubts  on  the 
means  of  making  a  tunnel,  when  one  is  really  wanted.  But  it 
was  not  my  intention  to  admit  that  the  one  proposed  could  be 
made  within  the  time  or  for  the  sum  proposed,  although  I  have 
only  undertaken  to  show  that  if  it  could  be  so  made,  there  would 
be  no  such  results  from  it  as  are  anticipated.  I  believe  that  it  will 
cost  more  money  than  is  said,  and  require  more  than  double  the 
5 


34 

time.  I  said  that  I  should  cast  no  ridicule  on  the  machine  that 
has  been  invented  for  boring.  I  know  that  our  people,  who  work 
in  stone,  show  a  remarkable  faculty  for  overcoming  difficulties, 
and  it  would  not  surprise  me  if  this  machine  were  found  to  be  of 
some  use,  though  it  deserves  remark  that  nobody  seems  disposed 
to  try  this  invention,  for  tunnels  elsewhere.  But  one  thing  should 
not  be  passed  without  particular  notice.  It  is  probable  that  even 
the  petitioners  are  not  more  confident  of  its  success  than  of  Mr. 
Ericsson's.  His  success  is  held  up  by  their  counsel,  in  argu- 
ment, as  a  reproach  against  all  those  who  are  slow  to  believe  in 
new  improvements.  Now,  if  Mr.  Ericsson  is  really  successful,  it 
cannot  be  long  before  we  shall  have  propellers  on  his  plan  between 
Boston  and  Albany.  As  more  than  one  half  the  labor  and 
three  quarters  of  the  fuel  necessary  for  steam  are  to  be  saved  by 
his  mode  of  using  heated  air,  no  railroad  through  the  tunnel  could 
come  in  competition  with  it  for  cheapness,  nor  secure  any  impor- 
tant advantage  in  speed,  for  the  mere  transportation  of  mer- 
chandise. <* 

SECTIONAL  CLAIM  FOR  AID. 

It  is  urged,  in  a  tone  of  complaint,  that  this  measure  is  wanted 
for  a  part  of  the  country  for  which  nothing  has  been  done,  while 
the  State  has  done  a  vast  deal  for  the  benefit  of  others  by  aiding 
the  Western  Railroad  and  lending  its  credit  elsewhere.  That 
road,  however,  was  not  made  to  oblige  the  farmers  of  Berkshire 
and  Hampden,  although  it  was  an  agreeable  incident  that  they 
were  to  derive  benefit  from  it.  If  there  had  been  no  other  object 
in  view  than  their  profit,  the  road  would  not  have  been  made  up 
to  this  time.  In  making  it,  the  State  was  not  asked  to  go  below 
daylight  and  encounter  unknown  difficulties  in  the  dark.  While 
she  has  shown  readiness  to  open  proper  avenues  and  has  assisted 
to  do  it,  until  the  railroad  interest  may  be  supposed  able  to  take 
care  of  itself,  she  has  given  no  encouragement  to  expect  her  aid 
in  unprofitable  rivalry,  like  what  is  proposed  here.  All  that  could 
have  been  reasonably  asked  of  her,  unless  the  Hoosac  route  had 
been  selected  as  the  first  avenue  to  the  Hudson,  would  have 
been  assistance  to  make  a  common  railroad  from  each  side  of  the 


85 

mountain,  toward  the  Connecticut  on  the  cast,  and  toward  the 
Hudson  on  the  west.  I  should  be  as  ready  as  most  people  to 
give  moderate  aid  for  such  an  object,  if  it  were  shown  that  it  is 
indispensablj  necessary  in  order  to  secure  a  share  in  the  general 
prosperity  for  the  towns  in  that  quarter.  But  the  reverse  is 
shown.  Their  growth  and  importance  are  dwelt  upon,  in  the 
case  of  the  petitioners,  to  show  the  value  of  local  business  on  the 
route.  They  seem  to  be  already  on  a  footing  with  the  average  of 
the  State.  I  hear  it  said,  to  be  sure,  that  much  of  the  farming 
land  there  has  not  increased  at  all  in  value  ;  and  the  same  may 
be  said  of  thousands  of  acres  within  twenty  miles  of  this  city, 
which  are  not  favorably  situated  in  reference  to  the  railroads  that 
centre  here.  They  are  really  of  little  more  value,  if  any,  than 
they  were  in  the  last  century,  before  we  had  any  supplies  of  agri- 
cultural produce  from  the  West  to  come  in  competition  with  our 
own  products. 

It  seems  to  be  thought  that  there  is  improper  interference  here 
from  the  Western  Railroad.  It  does  not  seem  so  to  me.  I 
have  no  interest  to  prompt  me  in  defending  its  Directors  ;  but 
their  remonstrance  is  such  as  I  think  it  was  their  duty  to  make, 
and  it  contains  important  arguments,  coinciding  with  some  views 
that  I  have  now  presented,  which  have  not  been  answered  or  no- 
ticed. If  the  route  through  the  tunnel  had  been  preferred  and 
opened  by  the  aid  of  the  State,  those  who  might  have  had  the 
management  of  it  would  certainly  have  neglected  their  duty,  if 
they  had  failed  to  present  a  true  statement  of  objections  in  oppo- 
sition to  any  similar  claim  that  might  have  been  made  here  for  aid 
in  opening  a  rival  route  ;  where  the  Western  Road  now  runs,  for 
instance. 


CONCLUSION. 

I  look  for  great  evil  to  come  from  the  rivalry  that  would  be  en- 
gendered by  this  measure,  in  poverty  of  equipment  and  increased 
danger  to  life,  against  which  we  have  recently  had  solemn  warn- 
ing ;  though,  on  the  Western  Road,  there  have  been  as  yet  but 
few  accidents  of  importance,  since  one  or  two  at  the  outset. 


36 

Common  arithmetic  shows  that  the  scheme  is  unsound  and  un- 
called for,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  State.  It  shows  that 
we  can  save  but  three  cents  and  a  fraction  in  transporting  a  bar- 
rel of  flour  from  the  Hudson  to  Boston ;  and  that  the  price  in 
New  York  will  be,  then,  fifteen  cents  per  barrel  lower  than  the 
price  here.  If  any  Senator  means  still  to'  maintain  that  we  need 
a  tunnel  to  aid  us,  on  the  pretence  that  we  are  going  behindhand, 
I  trust  that  he  will  prove  that  I  am  in  the  wrong,  by  the  census, 
the  State  valuation,  and  the  course  of  business. 

Unless  that  be  done,  I  shall  feel  bound  to  vote  under  the  con- 
viction that  no  emergency  exists  requiring  a  new  impulse  in  our 
affairs  that  would  involve  such  cost  and  risk,  and  that  the  impulse 
could  not  be  given  by  the  tunnel,  even  if  it  were  required.  The 
attempt  to  show  that  this  case  resembles  those  in  which  States 
have  heretofore  wisely  lent  assistance,  appears  to  me  to  be  a  total 
failure.  Since  wre  have  discontinued  the  policy  of  using  the  pub- 
lic credit  for  the  aid  of  railroads,  any  petition  for  it,  now,  should 
present  a  case  of  greater  benefit  to  the  whole  community,  as  a 
result,  than  most  that  have  preceded  it.  But  this  has  far  less  of 
that  than  most  of  them,  to  recommend  it.  With  the  exception  of 
moderate  local  benefit  to  one  section,  all  that  we  find  in  it  is  a 
poor  plan  of  opposition  between  neighboring  interests,  calculated 
to  take  away  from  some  one  nearly  all  that  is  given  to  another, 
instead  of  a  clear  addition  to  the  instruments  of  wealth,  tending 
to  the  benefit  of  the  whole  ;  and  while  it  would  be  "  humiliating" 
and  even  culpable,  in  this  age  of  progress,  to  neglect  any  means 
within  our  control  for  promoting  the  prosperity  and  growth  of 
both  city  and  State,  the  inaptitude  of  this  scheme  for  any  such 
purpose  is  a  prominent  objection  to  the  grant  of  aid  that  is 
desired. 


37 


FROM   THE   FITCHBURG   REVEILLE    OF    MARCH    16TH,    1853. 
[Reported  for  the  Reveille  ] 

REMARKS  OF  HON.  T.  G.  GARY,  OF  SUFFOLK, 

IN   THE   SENATE     OF     MASSACHUSETTS,    ON     THE     GENERAL    LAWS    FOR 
ESTABLISHING    MANUFACTURING   CORPORATIONS,   MARCH    1,    1853. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  : — A  Senator  from  the  Committee  on  Manufactures, 
who  thinks  that  this  law  should  be  brought  into  general  use  and  that  special 
acts  should  be  refused,  told  us,  yesterday,  that  the  opponents  of  the  law  had 
probably  never  examined  its  provisions ;  that  they  probably  never  would 
give  it  proper  attention,  until  they  were  compelled  to  do  so,  by  the  rejection 
of  their  petitions ;  and  that  they  would  then  find  that  they  had  no  reason 
for  complaint.  He,  therefore,  gave  us  a  comparison  between  the  special 
acts  heretofore  granted,  and  the  provisions  of  this  general  law.  I  was  glad 
to  have  the  explanation  from  one  of  its  friends.  I  take  his  view  of  it ;  and  I 
think  it  obvious,  from  that  view,  why  people  are  unwilling  to  use  it,  and 
why  those  who  have  much  property  will  prefer  to  invest  it  elsewhere,  even 
out  of  the  State,  rather  than  in  manufactures  here  according  to  its  terms. 


My  remarks  are  made  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  this  general  law 
tends  to  deter  capitalists  from  taking  shares  in  our  corporations.  But  some 
persons  seem  to  have  an  impression  that  the  rich  men  of  this  State,  and 
particularly  of  the  cities,  have  made  their  money  through  the  favor  of  this 
Legislature,  in  granting  them  acts  of  incorporation  for  manufacturing  pur- 
poses ;  and  that  they  are,  therefore,  in  a  manner  bound  to  do  with  it  some- 
what as  the  Legislature  directs.  *  *  *  *  I  shall  presently  show  this 
supposition  to  be  an  egregious  error. 


I  deny  that  there  is  any  partiality  shown  here  towards  the  rich,  or  that 
the  rich  have  been  made  so  by  the  favor  of  the  Legislature.  Who  are 
they  ?  Look  up  and  down  this  Beacon  street  where  we  are,  and  look  over 
this  city  and  regard  the  men  individually.  They  will  be  found  to  be  almost 
invariably  what  are  called  "  self-made  men,"  who  began  life  with  small 
means,  most  of  them  engaging  in  foreign  trade,  going  abroad  for  informa- 


tion,  even  among  nations  the  most  uncivilized  and  barbarous,  and  using  that 
information  with  sagacity  and  success.  They  have  collected  here  the 
wealth  that  they  have  gained  elsewhere,  much  of  it  on  the  other  side  of  the 
globe.  They  have  employed  that  wealth  here,  by  renewing  their  enter- 
prises in  navigation  from  our  ports,  in  a  way  that  has  given  impulse  to  all 
business,  and  increased  the  value  of  every  farm  in  the  State,  and  of  every 
heifer  and  steer  that  helps  to  stock  it.  They  have  invested  part  of  the 
property  thus  gained  in  factories,  and  given  employment  to  tens  of  thou- 
sands. They  have  taken  shares  in  railroads  to  open  the  interior,  and  in 
other  public  works.  They  have  founded  hospitals,  and  aided  in  the  cause 
of  education.  While  the  stock-lists  of  the  corporations  would  show  num- 
bers of  such  men,  I  might  with  confidence  challenge  any  one,  to  show  us  in 
the  list  of  proprietors  of  all  the  millions  of  property  at  Lowell,  five  men  of 
any  considerable  property  who  can  be  said  to  have  made  their  money  by 
manufacturing. 

I  have  in  my  mind,  at  the  moment,  a  man  well  known  in  the  councils  of 
the  nation  for  ability  and  wisdom,  who  lives  in  a  beautiful  house,  near  here, 
drives  a  fine  carriage,  or  his  wife  does,  and  has  every  thing  about  him  that 
intelligence  can  desire  from  wealth.  He  is  President  of  two  or  three  large 
manufacturing  corporations,  and  concerned  in  others.  And  this  man  lived 
in  the  same  house  and  in  the  same  way,  rich  from  his  own  acquisitions, 
when  all  Lowell  was  farming  land,  and  not  a  spindle  had  been  seen  there. 
He  did  not  grow  rich  by  manufacturing,  then. 

A  brother  lives  near  him,  of  whom  much  of  this  may  likewise  be  said, 
except  that,  now,  too  far  advanced  in  age  to  take  any  share  in  the  business 
of  life,  he  is  chiefly  known  for  acts  of  wide  beneficence ;  like  another  indi- 
vidual* of  the  same  description,  whose  late  residence  is  within  sight  from 
this  building,  and  who  has  closed  a  long  life  of  usefulness  and  benevolence 
in  peace  and  charity,  with  all  mankind,  to  the  sorrow  of  the  unfortunate 
while  we  have  been  sitting  here.  Both  of  them  might  well  say,  on  the  bed 
of  death,  in  the  language  of  Job, — 

"  When  the  ear  heard  me,  then  it  blessed  me  ;  and  when  the  eye  saw  me, 
it  gave  witness  to  me.  Because  I  delivered  the  poor  that  cried,  and  the 
fatherless,  and  him  that  had  none  to  help  him.  The  blessing  of  him  that 
was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  me  ;  and  I  caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing 
for  joy." 

A  similar  instance  is  found  in  the  distinguished  statesman  who  latelyrep- 
resented  the  country  as  our  ambassador  in  England.  Many  people  would, 
doubtless,  listen  with  amazement  to  the  assertion  that  he  did  not  derive  his 
wealth  through  a  commercial  house  always  depending  solely  for  business 
on  its  agency  for  factories.  Yet  it  is  perfectly  well  remembered  that  the 
house  in  question  for  some  time  declined  any  such  agency,  from  an  un- 
willingness to  relax  its  attention  to  foreign  business,  which  had  made  it 

*  The  late  Amos  Lawrence,  Esq. 


rich.  We  must  look  behind  any  action  of  our  Legislature,  then,  to  discover 
the  origin  of  that  wealth  from  which  he  has  founded  and  munificently  en- 
dowed the  Scientific  School  at  Cambridge  ;  contributing  liberally,  all  the 
time,  to  other  public  institutions  and  works  of  charity. 

Who  was  it,  I  might  ask,  too,  who  led  the  way  in  establishing  Normal 
Schools  among  us  ?  A  merchant*  who  had,  no  doubt,  much  to  do  with 
manufactures,  but  who  was  rich  before.  From  whom  have  we  had  a  house, 
I  might  almost  say  a  palace,  for  the  blind  ?  From  another,  of  whom  the 
same  might  be  said,  with  more  emphasis.  Who  gave  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  one  sum  to  the  General  Hospital,  open  to  all  parts  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, as  much  as  to  Boston  ?  Another,f  who  had  nothing  to  do  with 
factories. 

If  we  look  into  the  second  generation,  to  see  what  the  heirs  of  such  men 
do  with  the  money  which  they  inherit,  we  find  instances  that  tend  to  estab- 
lish a  high  character  for  them,  as  a  class.  The  manj  who  moved  forward, 
hand  in  hand  with  the  Commonwealth,  to  establish  the  State  Reform  School 
at  Westborough,  was  the  son  of  one  who  had  acquired  all  his  great  wealth 
by  ships  sent  on  long  voyages  into  distant  seas ;  and  thus  a  part  of  his  earn- 
ings was  finally  disposed  of.  Another,§  whose  wants  were  provided  for  by 
inheritance,  but  whose  active  and  sagacious  mind  had  increased  his  proper- 
ty by  his  own  enterprise,  dying  far  away,  childless  and  alone,  when  the  ties 
of  conjugal  and  paternal  affection  had  been  dissolved  in  the  death  of  those 
who  looked  to  him  for  protection,  was  found  to  have  provided  in  his  latest 
aspirations  for  the  improvement  of  his  native  State.  A  noble  fortune  was 
left  as  a  foundation  for  the  Lowell  Institute,  which  draws  to  us  the  phi- 
losophers and  men  of  science  of  the  Old  World,  while  it  elicits  and  liberally 
compensates  the  efforts  of  our  own  learned  men.  It  may  be  heard  from 
your  Teachers'  Institutes,  Sir,  with  what  gratification  and  improvement  an 
occasional  lecture  is  received  there  from  distinguished  professors,  who  never 
would  have  visited  this  country  but  for  that  munificent  bequest.|| 

And  such  instances  taken  for  illustration,  do  not  show  half  the  aggregate 
of  general  contribution  for  liberal  purposes  in  the  whole  community,  made 
up  by  the  combined  action  of  those  who  readily  follow  such  examples,  but 
necessarily  contribute  in  smaller  sums.  With  such  a  spirit  apparent,  when 
we  hear  it  said  that  privileges  are  sought  for  by  the  rich  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  poor,  and  when  capital  is  represented  as  arrayed  in  opposition  to  labor, 
it  really  seems  as  if  it  might  be  said  with  greater  truth,  that  the  capitalist 
thinks  more  kindly  of  the  laborer  than  laborers  do  of  each  other,  except 
when  they  combine  against  their  employer  as  if  he  were  a  common  enemy. 
If  our  laws  were  framed  to  keep  property  in  unbroken  descent,  by  entail- 
ment  and  the  like,  there  might  be  a  reason  to  regard  it  with  jealousy.  But 


*  The  late  Hon.  Edmund  Dwight.  f  The  late  John  M'Lean,  Esq. 

t  The  late  Hon.  Theodore  Lyman.  $  The  late  John  Lowell,  Jr.,  I 

||  The  other  persons  alluded  to  are  still  living. 


40 

the  accumulation  of  one  man  is  divided  and  subdivided  by  those  who  follow 
him  and  soon  disappears  in  the  mass. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  in  the  allusions  that  I  have  made,  to  claim  for  those 
who  become  rich  among  us  any  merit  for  fanciful  or  poetic  disinterested- 
ness. But  it  has  been  said  here  within  a  twelvemonth,  by  a  late  colleague 
of  the  Senator  and  a  political  associate  of  his,  that  it  is  not  desirable  to 
have  large  fortunes  among  us.  Now,  a  true  statement  of  facts  tends  to 
show  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  mode  of  acquisition  or  the  use  of  wealth 
here  that  is  detrimental  to  any  body  ;  while  there  is  much,  both  in  the  ac- 
quisition and  the  use  of  it,  that  promotes  welfare  and  prosperity  throughout 
the  State,  even  if  it  be  true  that  the"  rich  manage  their  affairs  merely  as 
men  of  business,  looking  to  their  own  advantage  alone. 

Suppose  the  largest  stockholder  in  the  corporations  at  Lowell,  for  in- 
stance, instead  of  liberally  aiding  others  (as  he  has),  had  never  assisted  any 
one  purposely,  but  looked  solely  to  his  own  interest.  Was  it  not,  still,  a 
benefit  to  the  community  that  he  acquired  property  elsewhere  and  planted 
it  there  in  a  way  that  tended  to  advance  the  value  of  land  in  that  vicinity  a 
hundred  fold  or  more,  to  increase  the  numbers  and  activity  of  our  popula- 
tion, and  of  course  to  increase  our  political  influence,  as  well  as  the  general 
valuation  of  the  State  ?  Before  the  commencement  of  this  century,  in  a 
spirit  of  vigorous  enterprise,  he  went  abroad  into  various  countries,  estab- 
lished a  commercial  house  at  Canton  (from  which  a  score  of  rich  men  have 
issued  since,  and  brought  back  fortunes  to  the  United  States),  and  was  one 
of  the  foremost  to  open  a  great  trade,  which  enables  us  to  say,  among  other 
things,  when  our  prosperity  is  attributed  to  the  staples  of  the  South,  that  of 
the  wealth  of  New  England,  more,  probably,  has  been  gained  by  carrying 
rice  from  the  islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean  to  feed  the  Chinese,  than  from  the 
rice  of  the  Carolinas.  In  a  long  series  of  enterprises  fitted  out  from  here, 
he  gave  advantageous  employment  to  various  branches  of  business;  and  in 
investing  the  property  thus  acquired,  helped  to  furnish  profitable  occupation 
in  factories  for  which  millions  on  millions  have  been  paid  in  wages  ;  while 
no  laborer  there,  man  or  woman,  ever  lost  a  dollar  that  was  due  for  work, 
by  failure  or  delay  of  payment.  Does  any  man  believe  that  if  the  action  of 
such  an  individual,  for  half  a  century  and  more,  could  have  been  withdrawn 
from  here,  and  his  enterprises  had  been  carried  on  from  New  York  or  Phil- 
adelphia, this  State  would  be  the  better  for  his  absence  ? 

Again,  if  any  great  undertaking  should  be  stopped  for  want  of  means, — 
if  a  railroad  company,  for  instance,  should  become  embarrassed,  afid,  re- 
quiring the  aid  of  capital  for  relief,  should  apply  to  some  agent  in  financial 
transactions  to  procure  money  to  a  large  amount, — to  whom  would  such  an 
agent  be  likely  to  resort  ?  I  do  not  mean  for  assistance  to  a  company  who 
build  their  road  where  it  never  can  be  profitable  to  the  stockholders,  though 
it  may  increase  the  value  of  property  all  along  its  line — but  to  aid  a  com- 
pany who  can  offer  good  security  and  liberal  remuneration  for  a  heavy  ad- 
vance. The  agent  or  broker  would  be  very  likely  to  go  to  some  man  who 


41 

in  youth  began  the  business  of  life  by  a  sea  voyage  as  a  mariner,  rose  to  be 
master  of  a  ship,  went  among  savages,  perhaps,  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific, 
at  the  risk  of  his  life,  traded  for  sea-otter  skins,  or  the  like,  carried  them  to 
China,  converted  them  into  teas  and  silks,  which  he  brought  home,  and  re- 
newing his  enterprises  from  here,  sent  others  to  repeat  the  operation.  Do 
we  find  cause  to  regret  that  his  accumulations  are  here  as  a  resource  in  such 
emergencies?  Certainly  not.  By  arbitrary  restrictions  we  may  drive 
capital  away,  but  when  it  is  gone,  and  our  people  begin  to  feel  the  want  of 
its  presence,  they  will  hardly  believe  that  their  true  interests  have  been 
consulted  bv  this  course. 


The  Senator  says,  that  this  general  law  was  no  party  measure.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  he  honestly  believes  what  he  says ;  and  yet  I  think  that  he  is 
mistaken. 


And  Avhat  do  we  lind  to  be  the  consequence  of  its  provisions  ?  The  pe- 
titioners for  the  bill  now  before  you  tell  the  story.  They  are  mechanics, 
praying  to  be  incorporated  in  the  old  way,  for  the  purpose  of  making  steam 
engines  on  so  large  a  scale  of  work  that  the  aid  of  capitalists  is  necessary. 
They  are  asked  why  they  do  not  organize  under  the  general  law.  They 
answer,  that  capitalists  dislike  its  provisions  and  will  not  join  them  on  the 
terms  required.  If  we  refuse  their  prayer,  then,  the  work  that  they  seek 
the  means  to  execute  here,  must  be  done  in  some  other  State,  under  laws 
more  favorable  to  general  prosperity  than  our  own, — and  our  mechanic:* 
arc  made  the  victims  of  bHnd  opposition  to  capital. 


INDEX, 


Page. 

BOSTON  AS  A  MARKET  FOR  FLOUR, f> 

Trade  with  Interior  Towns, 5 

"    Maine,  .         .         ...         .         .         5,  7,  28 

41         "    British  Provinces, 6 

"         "    Canada, -G 

tc    England, 8 

"         "    Australia  and  California,         .         .         .  7,  8,  13, 29 

"         "    Brazil,  &c., 8 

Difference  between  Southern  and  Western  Flour,     ...          7 

THE  TUNNEL  COMPARED  WITH  OTHER  PUBLIC  WORKS,  4,  8,  23,  2-1 

Saving  in  Distance,          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         10 

"       "  Cost  of  Transportation,  .         .          11,13,14,25,33 

Cost  down  the  Hudson, 14 

Freight  and  Passengers  required  for  the  Tunnel,       ...         13 
"  "  "         likely  to  be  obtained,  .         .  24,25 

BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK  COMPARED, 15 

Prosperity  of  Boston, 16,17 

PROSPERITY  OP  THE  STATE, 18 

Testimony  before  the  Legislative  Committee,  .         .  13,  27 

SUPPOSED  REMOVAL  OF  COMMERCE  FROM  BOSTON,          ...        20 
EXPORTS  OF  THE  UNION  IN  FLOUR  AND  WHEAT,          .         .  20,  22 

CONTINUATION  FROM  TUNNEL  OVER  OTHER  ROADS,        ...        22 
UTMOST  PROBABLE  RESULT  FROM  THE  TUNNEL^  .         .         .        24 

LOCAL  BUSINESS, 25 

DETRIMENT  TO  WESTERN  RAILROAD,    .  .  26,  3;» 

Caution  from  result  of  Western  Railroad,          ....        27 

INFLUENCE  OF  PRICES  ox  TRADE, 28 

MEANS  FOR  TRANSPORTATION  WESTWARD 20 

Wishes  of  Petitioners  in  aid,  *    31 

FERRY  AT  ALBANY,      ...  ....  10,  32 

GRADES,        ...  .,....'  12,  33 

MACHINE  FOR  TUNNEL, :        .  1,  34 

SECTIONAL  CLAIM  FOR  AID,          .  34 

CONCLUSION, 35 

WEALTH  AND  CAPITALISTS  OF  BOSTON,         .        .  37 


M207945 


VI  703 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


